MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military is ready for a counteroffensive that will be launched by May 15, Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview with journalist Semyon Pegov posted on Saturday.

As the Wagner founder pointed out, the last strong rain will take place on May 2 and "the weather will by dry and tanks and artillery will be able to roll through. The wind will dry out the soil," he said.

"The Ukrainian army is ready for the counteroffensive. It was impeded by bad weather and, perhaps, some internal problems that it had to resolve," Prigozhin said.

"Perhaps, they will give us a rest on May 9 but the offensive will 100% begin before [May] 15," he said.

The New York Times reported on April 25, citing the Pentagon’s classified documents leaked into the Internet and US intelligence data that Ukrainian troops planned to launch their counteroffensive in the southern direction next month. As the paper pointed out, Ukraine was set to prepare 12 combat brigades of about 4,000 soldiers each.