Russia will panic when Ukraine's counteroffensive begins – Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister

Volodymyr Havrylov, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defence, believes that "Russia will be in panic" when Ukraine launches its counteroffensive.

Source: Volodymyr Havrylov in an interview with The Independent

Quote from Havrylov: "We will launch our counteroffensive – when and where it doesn’t matter now. [And when that happens] Russia will be in panic; you will see a lot of panic. They still don’t understand that [their] propaganda is demonstrating a false picture of what is actually happening on the ground. This war will be won on the ground, not on the TV screens, not on the internet [...]

I would not be surprised if on some day, maybe this month or next month, we will see something which contributes to the immediate collapse of Russian strategy or its military, [its] economy."

Details: Havrylov said that holding the eastern city of Bakhmut was a key element of Ukraine’s preparations for the counteroffensive. Maintaining a foothold in the "fortress" of Bakhmut has allowed Ukraine to expose the fact that the Russian war machine is "not [of] the quality we saw a year ago when Russia launched the full-scale invasion in Ukraine and rolled in tanks in the first wave."

"Bakhmut demonstrated that, not only to us in Ukraine but also to the enemy, that there is no military solution for Russia in this war; even worse, there is a military disaster awaiting Russia at the end of this war, and we will see it soon," the deputy defence minister said.

He added that after months of attritional conflict, the situation on the ground might see rapid developments.

"I can only say that we are doing everything possible to end the war as quickly as possible…I would really like 2023 to be a year of victory," Havrylov said.

Previously: In November 2022, Havrylov said that by the end of December 2022 Ukrainian forces might enter Crimea, and predicted that the war with Russia would be over by summer 2023.

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