Gen Petraeus: Counteroffensive of Armed Forces of Ukraine will be impressive

According to him, the Ukrainians are “determined to liberate their country”.

“My sense is that they will achieve combined arms effects in other words, they will successfully carry out combined arms operations where you have engineers that are breaching the obstacles and diffusing the minefields and so forth; armour following right on through protected by infantry against anti-tank missiles; air defence keeping the Russians aircraft off them; electronic warfare jamming their radio networks; logistics right up behind them; artillery and mortars right out in front of them,” Petraeus told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after visiting Kyiv and meeting with President Zelensky, The Guardian reports.

Petraeus added that the lead elements “inevitably culminate after 72-96 hours.” Speaking of Crimea, he noted that Ukraine, in his opinion, will cut the ability of the Russians to resupply Crimea and begin the process of isolating Crimea.

When asked about the liberation of Crimea, he said: “Not in this counteroffensive.”

“But if they can get to the point of beginning to isolate Crimea, I think that changes the dynamics very, very substantially,” the General added.

As reported, during a joint press conference with President of Estonia Alan Karis, Zelensky said that the result of the counteroffensive should be the liberation of the Ukrainian territories from the Russian invaders.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance have provided Ukraine with enough military aid to liberate territories occupied by Russia, but are ready to do even more.