A senior Ukrainian security official has said the country is ready to launch a counter-offensive against Russian forces.
Oleksiy Danilov said an assault to retake territory from Vladimir Putin’s forces could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.
Mr Danilov, who is the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said Ukraine is ready to take advantage of this “historic opportunity” that “we cannot lose”.
Asked if Ukrainian armed forces were ready for the offensive, he told the BBC: “We are always ready. The same as we were ready to defend our country at any time. And it is not a question of time.
“We have to understand that that historic opportunity that is given to us - by God - to our country we cannot lose, so we can truly become an independent, big European country.”
He added: “It could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week.
“It would be weird if I were to name dates of the start of that or those events. That cannot be done…. We have a very responsible task before our country. And we understand that we have no right to make a mistake.”
His comments come after Belarus yesterday signed a deal allowing Russian nuclear weapons to be deployed on its territory.
The move formalised a plan agreed earlier by Vladimir Putin and Belarusian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko.
Putin had announced in March that his country planned to deploy tactical, comparatively short-range and small-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Russian forces are believed to have seized control of Bakhmut following months of fighting although it is thought up to 20,000 Wagner Group troops were killed seizing it.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its latest intelligence update that the mercenary group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had said the withdrawal had begun and positions were being transferred to Russian defence ministry forces. Kyiv corroborated Wagner’s rotation out from the city’s outskirts.
The MoD said that forces of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic had probably entered the eastern Ukrainian city since Wednesday to start “clearance operations” as of May 24.
