General Romanenko: AFU Starts Third Offensive Operation

"The window of opportunity" for success is only a little over a month.

The Ukrainian Defence Forces are currently completing the second phase of the defensive operation. The third, offensive phase will begin when the army of the aggressor country Russia loses any opportunity to seize new territory.

Such a window of opportunity for an offensive may emerge between now and early February, but the Ukrainian army will need substantial military assistance to succeed.

This opinion was expressed in an exclusive interview with obozrevatel.com by former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko.

According to his estimates, today the task of the Ukrainian army is to complete the second stage of the strategic defensive operation and move on to the third, offensive one.

"The first offensive operation of the enemy and, accordingly, the first defensive operation of our Defence Forces was in the north, when the enemy tried to carry out a blitzkrieg, the second was in the east and south of our country," the general explained.

"Our operation will end as a defensive operation when, through our efforts and combat actions, we will put the entire enemy army into a state of cessation of offensive actions, i.e. to defence. Including in and around Bakhmut, in the south and east," he added.

Romanenko stressed that Ukraine needs reserves and a sufficient number of weapons for a successful offensive. At the same time, the "window of opportunity" for success is only a little over a month.

"As for the enemy, they may be ready for a new offensive in early February, give or take a week. That is they can end their second offensive operation by switching over to defense and then they will plan and conduct a third offensive operation, for which they are preparing strategic forces," he noted.

At the same time, the general stated that the military assistance of the allies was not enough to successfully de-occupy the country. In particular, he said that the daily ammunition consumption by the enemy army is around 20,000, but Western assistance to Ukraine is significantly lower.