As Ukrainians evacuate their residents from flooded Kherson after the destruction of the Kachovska Dam, more and more analysts say the war is entering a new phase. The Washington Post, citing four sources directly from the Ukrainian army, writes that after months of tension, the Ukrainian offensive has started.
Unnamed American or other Western officials claim this for the media, and Russian war blogger and criminal Ivan Girkin also thinks so.
Kyiv had already published a video over the weekend, which many interpreted as a harbinger of an attack. His main message was that “plans are kept quiet”, and therefore the Ministry of Defense will not disclose the exact date of the start of the offensive.
The Russians initially reported on the fighting around the villages of Velyka Novosilka and Novodonetsk in the Donetsk region, now, according to them, intense fighting is taking place in the south. According to the information of the American publicist David Ignatius, in some places the front had to retreat by five to ten kilometers despite the mining.
Ignatius compares the beginning of the Ukrainian attack to D-Day, the action of the Allied troops on June 6, 1944, during which they landed in Normandy and began the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany.
It doesn’t have to be “just” about the territory
But what can we expect from the Ukrainian offensive and what will determine its success? Hers will be absolutely key