AFU Launching Powerful Counteroffensive In New Direction

The attack will be much more extensive than in Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Ukraine is gathering troops for the next big counter-offensive as early as this winter in the Melitopol direction.

"They should maintain the momentum they have built up, first in September with liberating Kharkiv region and then in November with de-occupying Kherson," Atlantic Council analyst Peter Dickinson said.

In an interview with Euronews, the analyst stressed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are deliberately not conducting active combat operations in order to save shells for a large-scale counteroffensive.

The new counterattack should also show the West where their funding and military equipment goes.

US Army Colonel Liam Collins also believes the offensive should be carried out in winter, while there is still frost and no slush.

"Everyone remembers the flooding in the first stages of the Russian invasion. It is very difficult to conduct an offensive and move troops in these conditions," the colonel said.

It is much easier for the AFU to deal with sub-zero temperatures because of good logistics, leadership and fortitude.

Dickinson is confident that Kyiv will choose the Azov coast as the new direction for a counter-offensive.

"Probably to the Berdyansk area, possibly to Melitopol, to isolate from reinforcement the Russian troops that are being sent from Crimea," the analyst said.

The attack on Melitopol will be much more extensive than the attack on Kherson in the autumn of 2022. Kyiv has repeatedly provided the Russian Federation with such unpleasant surprises. Other analysts predict a counter-offensive in the east, since the occupiers have amassed large quantities of military equipment and manpower in southern Ukraine.