‘Time To Take Back What Is Ours’

Kyiv has hinted that its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia could start soon with a video brandishing its intentions to “destroy the enemies.”

Posted by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the clip is titled “time to take back what is ours” and depicts Kyiv’s forces readying themselves for a fight.

In a series of call-and-response exclamations set to images of Ukrainian troops, the narrator says: “Ukraine, the motherland. Lord, our heavenly father bless us. I’m going to destroy the enemies.”

“Let my hand be strong to destroy the enemies,” he says, “may my eye be clear to destroy the enemies.” He goes on to say how “our decisive offensive” will lead to “our sacred vengeance.”

Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry, tweeted that the video was inspired by a prayer by the Ukrainian writer Osyp Mashchak almost 100 years ago. “The main theme of the modern prayer is ‘Bless our determined offensive!'” he said. Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s defense ministry for comment.

Much is at stake in Ukraine’s widely anticipated counteroffensive, in which Kyiv’s forces are expected to draw on Western-supplied equipment in their bid to make gains against Russia.

In an interview with the BBC, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, said that an assault could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or in a week.”

He said it would be “strange” to reveal the dates of the operation but insisted “we’re always ready” to take what he described as an “historic opportunity.”

“We cannot lose,” he said, expressing the wish that Ukraine “can truly become an independent, big European country.”

He dismissed suggestions that the counteroffensive had already begun and defended the decision to continue fighting for the Donetsk city of Bakhmut for so long, at what is believed to be a cost of high troop losses for both sides.

“Bakhmut is our land, our territory, and we must defend it,” he told the BBC, adding that some troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries which spearheaded Moscow’s drive for the city were withdrawing to regroup at three other locations.

It comes as Russia’s deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin told the state-controlled Tass news agency that Ukraine must realize “new territorial realities” and give up Russian occupied territories.

Head of the office for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, responded with a Telegram post saying Kyiv would not hold any peace talks with Russia as long as Russian troops are on Ukrainian territory.

Galuzin also told Tass that to achieve a “durable peace” Ukraine should not join NATO nor the European Union.