Balitsky: APU missed a chance for a counteroffensive in the Zaporozhye region

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) missed the chance for a counteroffensive in the Zaporozhye region, Acting Governor of the region Yevhen Balitsky said on the air of the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

“The readiness of the enemy for a counteroffensive is now quite low. <...> Compared to autumn, <...> we have everything we need to repel any offensive. <...> With a high degree of probability they [ВСУ] lost their chance to do it in the fall,” Balitsky said (quote according to TASS).

He noted that the Russian army counteracts the onslaught of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the region. In addition, the authorities do not consider “the option of Energodar in terms of evacuation of personnel [Запорожской АЭС] and residents of the city,” the head of the region emphasized.

At the same time, Balitsky added that the Ukrainian army became more active “somewhere since the beginning of May.” “We began to catch much more sabotage groups, but I must say that their quality began to drop sharply,” he said.

At the beginning of May, Balitsky announced on the evacuation of 18 border settlements of the Zaporozhye region, including Energodar: residents will be relocated deep into the region for security purposes.

Then the acting governor said that first of all, families with children, the elderly, the disabled, patients of medical institutions would be taken out. High school students will continue their full-time education, and the children will be sent to children’s camps for recreation and health improvement.

May 5 Balitsky also declaredthat the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces could begin in the coming days or even hours. According to him, over the past week, the Ukrainian military attacked the cities closest to the line of combat clashes.

Ukraine announces a counteroffensive from the winter. On March 10, adviser to the head of the country’s presidential office, Mikhail Podolyak, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, said that the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could begin within the next two months.

On May 11, a number of war correspondents in their Telegram channels reported on the start of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, military commander Yevgeny Poddubny wrote that the Ukrainian army began to encircle Russian forces in the Artyomovsk direction and made attempts to “organize a breakthrough” in the Soledar area with the help of armored groups with tanks. Later, he clarified that “the enemy is conducting local battles as part of a grand plan” – an offensive.

After that, the Ministry of Defense refuted breakthrough of the defense and stressed that the situation in the zone of the special operation is under control. The department stressed that in the Kupyansk, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye directions, “active operations are not being carried out.” In the Krasnolimansky direction of the RF Armed Forces, two attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Kremennaya and Chervonaya Dibrova.