US Secretary of Defence: Ukraine’s counteroffensive expected in spring

“We see Russia introducing a number of new troops to the battlefield. These troops are ill-trained and equipped. And so their casualty rate has been really high.

What Ukraine wants to do in the first possible moment is to establish or create momentum and to establish conditions on the battlefield in its favour.

Because of that, we in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group have been working hard to ensure that they have the armour capability, the fires, the sustainment to be able to be effective in creating the effects on the battlefield, what they want to create. And so we believe that there will be a window of opportunity for them to exercise the initiative, and then trade,” Austin said.

Austin stated earlier that eight countries would send tanks to Ukraine, and that Norway would provide €7.5 billion in military and civilian supplies to Ukraine over the coming five years.

Poland will send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine in March, the country’s MoD announced on Twitter.

Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukraine’s military intel, stated in early January that Ukraine’s army would start its “most serious” counteroffensive in spring. Budanov expects fighting to be the “hottest” in March.

The meeting of defence ministers of NATO states is taking place in Brussels on 14 and 15 February. Apart from representatives from NATO countries, defence ministers of Ukraine, Finland, and Sweden are also present.