Ukraine could launch a huge counter-attack ‘within days’

UKRAINE’S long-expected counter-offensive could be just days away, one of the country’s most senior security officials said yesterday.

The assault aims to retake territory from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Oleksiy Danilov – who as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council is at the heart of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s de facto war cabinet – said it could begin ‘tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week’.

In a rare interview, he told the BBC: ‘This historic opportunity that is given by God to our country we cannot lose, so we can truly become an independent, big European country.’

When asked when the assault would begin, Mr Danilov said: ‘It would be weird if I were to name dates of the start.’

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, head of Ukraine’s armed forces, posted on social media: ‘The time has come to take back what’s ours.’

Presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak indicated that preliminary attacks had begun with the destruction of Russian supply lines and depots behind enemy lines. Yesterday, Ukraine launched drone strikes 300 miles away on Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline, which supplies crude oil to eastern Europe and Germany.

Ukraine has warned that Russia might be planning a radioactive leak at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to disrupt the counter-offensive.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, outgoing head of the RAF, warned that a defeated Russia was likely to become more ‘vindictive’ and pose a greater threat to Nato. Last night, Ukraine insisted it held part of the eastern city of Bakhmut, despite Putin’s claim that his forces had overrun it.

Meanwhile, Russia is forcing Germany to remove more than 100 of its diplomats and workers from Moscow.