Time crucial for Ukraine as it prepares for counter-offensive - Reznikov

According to Ukrinform, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said this in an interview with Lithuania's news agency ELTA, Delfi reports.

"The Russians have been using the 'creeping' offensive tactics there [near Bakhmut] for more than half a year, suffering huge losses. This means that, if it were not for those losses, they could have used their full potential against us on another defensive line or elsewhere on the front. In a less fortified and protected place. And now we are inflicting huge losses on them every day, holding them, in fact, in a vise... The dreams and plans of the Kremlin to reach the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as soon as possible are collapsing," Reznikov said, justifying the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to defend Bakhmut.

According to him, the fact that the Russians do not manage to achieve success by the repeatedly announced dates for the planned offensive "means that they lose psychologically, and there they lose not only manpower, but also equipment and ammunition."

Reznikov said that now time is crucial for Ukraine as it prepares for a counter-offensive.