After months spent playing defense in the face of its opponent’s larger, better-armed war machine, essentially trading space on the battlefield for time, Ukraine now seems poised to launch its first significant counteroffensive in its war of survival with Russia.
Ukrainian officials and private analysts say Kyiv’s main thrust appears to be focused on Kherson, a crucial city in southern Ukraine that was among the first to fall to the invading Russian forces in late February and has emerged as a key to the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten its hold on the southern and eastern edges of its neighbor.