NEW YORK, April 25. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces planned to launch their long-awaited counteroffensive in the southern theater of operations next month, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing leaked Pentagon documents.
According to the newspaper, Ukraine will prepare 12 brigades of about 4,000 servicemen each by the end of April to launch the counteroffensive in the southern direction. The Western countries are now training and supplying nine of the twelve brigades. According to the New York Times, the American officials believe it is unlikely that the counteroffensive will lead to "big gains" and a drastic change in the situation on the battlefield.
The topic of Ukraine’s potential counteroffensive has been constantly brought up by the media in recent months. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said that the Western countries’ open discussions of the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive proved their direct involvement in the conflict.
The US mass media reported earlier that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice had launched a probe into the leak of secret documents about Washington and NATO’s plans to train Ukrainian soldiers ahead of an offensive against Russia. Numerous documents on the schedules of arms supplies and the strength of forces were leaked to social networks, including Twitter and Telegram.
Jack Teixeira, 21, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested on April 13 in connection with the leak case.