Ukrainian According to Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the armed forces will be ready to strike back at the Russians, who by spring have seized vast swaths – about 20 percent – of Ukraine’s territory.

The exact timing of the counter-offensive will depend on several factors, he said, including arms shipments from the West, which have played a key role in the country’s self-defense efforts since the Russian military invaded its territory a year ago. February 24, 2022

In an interview he gave to the media of the German group Funke, which is published today, Mr. Skibitsky reiterates that Kiev’s goal remains the liberation of the entire occupied territory of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“We will only stop when we take back our entire country based on the (internationally recognized) 1991 borders,” he says. “This is our message to Russia and the international community.”

Ukraine’s deputy head of intelligence speaks broadly about how Kyiv plans to achieve its “military-strategic goals.”

“We are trying to wedge in the Russian front in the south – between the Crimea and the Russian rear.”

“It is possible to destroy weapons depots or military equipment on Russian territory, for example, in the area of ​​the city of Belgorod, from where strikes are launched against Ukraine,” he adds, since “for example, Kharkov is under threat.”

“Unsuccessful” Russian attacks near Yachidne

In addition, the Ukrainian military said today that Russia carried out unsuccessful attacks near Yagidne on Saturday after a group of Russian mercenaries claimed to have captured a village in eastern Ukraine near the epicenter of heavy fighting.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said today that Russia continues to concentrate its offensive efforts along the entire front line in Bakhmut, where Yagidne is located.

The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said yesterday that his troops had captured Yakhidne. On Friday, he said his forces were in control of Berkifka, a nearby village on the outskirts of Bahamut.

However, the Ukrainian military said the shelling was continuing, citing “unsuccessful shelling” near six settlements, including Yagidne and Berkifka, in the Donetsk region.

Putin: West wants to destroy Russia

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin said Russia has no choice but to take NATO’s nuclear capability into account as the US-led alliance seeks to defeat Russia, the TASS news agency reported today.

“In the current conditions, when all the prominent NATO countries have declared that their main goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on us, so that, as they say, our people suffer, how can we ignore their nuclear potential in these conditions,” Putin said. TV company Rossiya1, TASS reports.

The West, Putin said, wants to destroy Russia.

“They have one goal: to destroy the former Soviet Union and its main part, the Russian Federation,” Putin said, TASS reports.

The West, the Russian president also said, is an indirect accomplice in the “crimes” committed by Ukraine.

^{Source: APE-MEB, dpa, Reuters.}