Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that his country's long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia is underway.
Zelensky made the brief admission during a news conference in Kyiv after being asked about the counteroffensive, which Ukrainian officials have long said they would refrain from formally announcing the launch of. The approach is not entirely surprising given that Ukraine wouldn't want to tip the Russians off about their plans. Still, both Russia and Ukraine have been known to conduct disinformation campaigns to confuse enemy forces, which this could be an example of.
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"Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place," Zelensky said, according to Ukrainian media. “At what stage [they are at] — I will not say in detail."
A top Ukrainian defense official hinted in a heavily produced video on last weekend that the counteroffensive may be coming soon.
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, posted video with a caption that reads, "time to take back what is ours," to Telegram last Saturday. The video featured a series of call-and-response exclamations in between shots of Ukrainian troops who appeared to be preparing for battle.
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Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at a Pentagon briefing earlier this month that the U.S. believes Ukraine has "a very strong hand" going into this next stage of the war, saying, "As they prepare to conduct counteroffensive operations, they have got a very strong hand and we're very confident that they have the combat capability that they'll need."
“They have nine mechanized armored brigades that we've provided, they have significant air defense capability,” Ryder said. “The entire world has come together to ensure that they have ammunition, and importantly, we're also providing training, and we're working very closely with them on sustainment and logistics aspects. So as they prepare to conduct counteroffensive operations, they have got a very strong hand and we're very confident that they have the combat capability that they'll need.”