"Preparations for the counter-offensive are in the pipeline”, said the Ukrainian defense minister Oleksy Reznikov in a television interview, “I don't just hope, I believe it. I am convinced that much has been done to make the counter-offensive successful. Because if our generals are not confident, it would be useless to go forward. Everything has to be planned“he said, quoted by UNIAN. “Today we are crossing the finish line, when we can say 'everything is ready' depends on the decision of the General Staff", concluded the Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
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Reznikov's words come after the umpteenth rocket attack conducted by Russia, with 3 dead and 40 wounded among civilians. At least 34 people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as announced by the governor of the region, Serghi Lysak, according to whom the Pavlohrad district was affected. Among the wounded also 5 children.
Overall, the Moscow forces conducted 27 air strikes and carried out 45 MLRS launches against Ukrainian troop positions and inhabited areas, causing deaths and injuries among the civilian population.
In the Kherson region controlled by Ukrainian forces, one person was killed and 3 wounded. Kiev would also have been the target of the raid, but the defenses of the capital have neutralized missiles and drones. In fact, there are no victims in Kiev, nor damage to buildings and infrastructures. According to Ukrainian military leaders, 15 of the 18 cruise missiles launched by Russia were intercepted and destroyed.
"For any such attack, the Russian invaders will get our response. No chance for the Russian occupier on our land! Only destruction for the enemy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr said Zelensky in the usual evening talk.
The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed responsibility for the raids claiming to have attacked military sites, including weapons depots and munitions factories. All designated targets were hit, the ministry said in a statement, saying "high-precision naval and air weapons were used against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities." “The objectives of the raids have been achieved – said the Ministry of Defense – The jobs of companies that make ammunition, weapons and military equipment have been destroyed”.
Over XNUMX dead and wounded among Russian forces in Ukraine since last December. The figure was provided by the White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, according to which, on the basis of intelligence information from the United States, the dead would be over 20 thousand, half of which came from the ranks of the Wagner group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the militia company, insists on his request to the Russian Defense Ministry to increase the supplies of ammunition to its fighters engaged in the battle for Bakhmut. In a video posted on his Telegram channel, the leader of the Wagner group said he needed at least 300 tons of artillery shells a day for the assault on the eastern Ukrainian town.
"Three hundred tons a day correspond to 10 cargo containers, not much... But no more than a third is supplied to usPrigozhin said as he inspected boxes of rifles in a warehouse he said was in the town of Soledar, northeast of Bakhmut.
In an earlier video, in front of a destroyed building in Soledar, Prigozhin said that May XNUMX is the founding anniversary of Wagner and that if the group is doomed to die, “It's not at the hands of the Ukrainian army or NATO, but at the fault of our bastard national bureaucrats".