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Ukraine's Prime Minister Says Kiev Could Launch Counteroffensive as Late as This Summer

© AP Photo / Evgeniy MaloletkaUkrainian National guard soldiers talk to each other as they guard a mobile checkpoint together with the Ukrainian Security Service agents and police officers during a joint operation, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022
Ukrainian National guard soldiers talk to each other as they guard a mobile checkpoint together with the Ukrainian Security Service agents and police officers during a joint operation, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.04.2023
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday that Kiev could launch a counteroffensive against Russian troops as late as this summer, noting that Ukraine does not feel "the pressure from our friends and partners."
"We do not feel the pressure from our friends and partners vis-a-vis the start of the offensive," Shmyhal said in an interview with The Hill, adding that the counteroffensive could be launched as late as the summer.
"All of our friends and partners do comprehend clearly that in order to go into counteroffensive, one must be 100 percent, and even more percent prepared to do so."
The prime minister noted that the most intense pressure to start the counteroffensive comes from within Ukraine.
When asked about how the leak of top secret Pentagon documents containing information on the Ukraine conflict affected counteroffensive plans, Shmyhal said that "Ukraine will liberate its lands."
"We have proven multiple times that we can do it. From our international partners we ask for more military capabilities, like tanks, ammunition, planes, armored vehicles," he said.
On Tuesday, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, told German media that Kiev will decide on the counteroffensive "at the latest possible moment."
In turn, Yan Gagin, an adviser to Denis Pushilin, acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic, said that Ukraine did not have sufficient reserves on the line of contact for a successful counteroffensive.
In this handout photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, Russian paratroopers are seen on a mission on the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction in Ukraine. - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.03.2023
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Chinese Military Experts Forecast Ukraine Conflict's End in Summer 2023, Reports Say
Ukraine has been reportedly preparing to launch a counteroffensive against Russia in the spring of this year, with a number of Western officials expressing their willingness to help Kiev. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against further escalation of the situation that could lead to the US and NATO's direct involvement in the conflict.
In early April, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Polish newspaper Wyborcza that the Ukrainian army was actively preparing a counteroffensive, which would be launched after the end of bad roads season.
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