Ukraine President: Russian Counteroffensive Expected by Late May to Early June

The most dangerous situation is now in eastern Ukraine, but the Defence Forces have stabilised it "as far as possible" despite a shortage of weapons in the "worst winter months". However, a counter-offensive by Russian troops is expected in late May or early June. 

This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with CBS News.

"We are starting to prepare brigades for important actions. We have stabilised the situation. It is better than two or three months ago. We share information with our partners and say that Russia will be preparing counter-offensive actions and it could be the end of May or June," Zelensky said.

Currently, Ukraine needs help to prepare for the Russian offensive, the President stressed.

"We need not only to prepare, we need not only to stabilise the situation, because our partners are sometimes really happy that we have stabilised the situation, they hold their fists for us and say: "Okay, you have the power. No, I'm saying that we need help now to prepare the appropriate brigades that will have to fight for our land, especially at the time of the counter-offensive that Russia wants to launch," Zelenskyy said.  

According to him, the question now is what exactly Ukraine needs to avoid losing territory now.

"If we are not talking about a counter-offensive, but about stabilisation, which I said to keep it, then number one is air defence and artillery. This is what we need," the President of Ukraine said.

At present, it is necessary to take into account not only the number of shells received from partners, but also their characteristics.

"In Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Lysychansk, Soledar, etc., it is very difficult to fight the enemy whose artillery shell can fire for 20-plus kilometres, while yours hits up to 20 km. In other words, to defend, you need to have parity, and to attack, you need to have more power. Today, we are fighting for parity on the diplomatic front," Zelensky added.

Earlier, the Commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Pavliuk said that Russia was creating a new grouping of more than 100,000 troops, so it is likely that in the summer the Russians will try to launch a new offensive against Ukraine on one of the directions.