Ukraine is gearing up
for a counter-offensive.
The defense minister there
saying that preparations
are almost complete.
And according to NATO,
Ukraine's allies have delivered
98% of the combat vehicles they promised.
Nick Paton Walsh is live in
Jaffa region in southern Ukraine now.
So, Nick, preparation is nearly complete.
What's the very latest there?
Yeah, interesting comments this morning
from Ukraine's
defense minister,
Alexander Isakov,
saying that
preparations for the counteroffensive
are coming to an end.
And he goes on to say, in a global sense,
we are ready in a high percentage mode.
The next question is up
to the general staff.
And as soon as it's God's will.
The weather, it's been raining
pretty badly on off
air for the past two weeks.
And the commanders decision,
we will do it.
Now, this is from a government
to have over the past
two weeks been quite clear.
They're not going to give us sort
of a starting bugle or an indication
as to when they decide to start
this counteroffensive
are made absolutely clear to
that secrecy is the high imperative
that's even been echoed by US
military officials
who say they've assisted
in training to make this, quote,
a surprise attack.
So it is interesting to hear this sort of
detail discussion about readiness,
about whose decision it is, about
when that particular decision
may indeed come.
And we sit on the frontline
ourselves, a
growing sense of anticipation
if not even movement,
suggesting
the counteroffensive is imminent,
if not possibly
seeing its opening stages.
Spring is here.
After winter's frozen horror
and the buzz
and sting of Ukraine's
looming counter offensive is growing
aiming at Russian positions
within 30 seconds,
the Ukrainian unit has moved away
But it may be a precise operation,
but the Russian response is not
slamming
into the nearby town,
edging closer to us.
Impossible to tell
what the Russians are trying to hit.
But another example
of the intense bombardment.
Their bid
to stop the counteroffensive
from starting.
It is ordinary civilians
caught in the rising dust behind us.
Who bear the brunt
of Russia's frustrated rage
along and around
the brutalized towns
where Ukraine says
it may launch its attack.
There are more signs
it is underway lurking in the foliage
than Ukraine has given publicly.
That's because Ukraine
has said nothing at all
about when, where or how it will attack
But among machine gun fire in the nearby
trenches, a drone operators
hidden in the rubble,
the detailed, intimate picture
they have of their enemy
just two fields away is startling,
watching and trying to kill each other
every hour.
They've noticed the Russians pulling back
so many were still searching consumers
who came in from Syrian rebels.
There's almost 2 million yourself
working as a typical school budget.
Over 13 killed short of the and yet
you know the U.S.
Army shows of the professionalism
broadly the
drone and you don't know where Pushkin
will do headmaster now
and you still no you
I mean Australia will you the city was
another drone team has seen the Russians
also left
defending ruins
ridden by chaos in their ranks
just just
a disappointed Australia with some dudes
and as the supporters of the
of possible doom
to neurotic Macedonian strain
somewhat suspicious
you can have a little neurotic
streak goes on
as well as some of the puzzle
you will read.
It won't be long until that cunning
or chaos meets a decisive test
in this flat, open and perilous space.
The real issue of safe
Ukraine here
is the speed in which it can achieve
some strategic success here
because the Russians well,
you heard there of their ineptitude
and we've seen it
well over the last year
or so, have been able to bring mass
to this particular area,
the south separates area,
which many think is any target
for Ukraine's counteroffensive.
They've dug trenches.
They sent a lot of people to those areas.
And so some analysis thinks that
if Ukraine gets bogged down
in a war of attrition,
along that long defensive line,
it could potentially find success
much harder to reach.
Its potential for victory
here is to move fast
and we've heard a lot of pinpoint strikes
over the past week
or so, particularly high
value Russian targets yesterday,
a lot of focus in a little poll as well.
And that many,
I think, assess is a way of trying
to soften up Russia's defenses here.
Quite what else may be happening
as we hear this increased drumbeat
towards Ukraine beginning
this counteroffensive is unclear.
But as I say,
it's up
to Kiev really to show
to its Western partners here
who supplied training,
weaponry financing
for a counter-offensive Kiev
and so much of NATO's
want to see to be decisive
to be able to effect something
relatively quickly
and not get caught
in a long war of attrition
that ultimately may play
into the blundering
sort of massed
nature of Russia's force in that area.
It's a great point,
Nick, and I would argue a long war
that many people don't want to see.
Nick Paton Walsh live for us there,
thank you.