them. tonight, how tenuous is vladimir putin s hold on power. what does russian infighting mean for ukraine s counteroffensive. and what did the u.s. and western allies know in advance. we gave putin no excuse to blame this on the west and blame this on nato. good evening from kyiv, ukraine. i am ali velshi. and i am here because something unprecedented unfolded over the weekend. never in 23 years under putin s russia has this happened. thousands of armed soldiers, mercenaries, taking up arms against their own country. [inaudible] this was a scene inside russia today, explosions in cities, and a private army marching through the streets, vowing to take the fight all the way to the capital. those rebel forces previously allied with putin and the russian military, even leading many of the battles in ukraine, but then that ship suddenly violently ended. what exactly they were marching for remains unclear. the mercenaries, part of the wagner group, wer
forces. so, i think putin is afraid of them. tonight, how tenuous is black vladimir putin s hold on power. what does russian infighting mean for ukraine s counteroffensive. and what did the u.s. and western allies know in advance. we gave putin no excuse to blame this on the west and blame this on nato. good evening from kyiv, ukraine. i am ali velshi. and i am here because something unprecedented unfolded over the weekend. never in 23 years under putin s russia has this happened. thousands of armed soldiers, mercenaries, taking up arms against their own country. [inaudible] this was a scene inside russia today, explosions and cities, and a private army watching through the streets, vowing to take the fight all the way to the capital. those rebel forces previously allied with putin and the russian military, even leading many of the battles and ukraine but then that ship suddenly violently ended. what exactly they were marching for remains unclear.
The Institute for the Study of War has suggested that Russia will likely focus on conducting "localized offensive operations" across the entire front in order to deplete Ukrainian forces. Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Details: Russian forces "will likely choose to conduct localized offensive operations as well as larger offensive efforts throughout the theater in order to force Ukraine to commit scarce materiel and manpower to defensive efforts", ISW wrote.
the land equipment. the f-16s, they re not going to be available for that counteroffensive. we don t know the timeframe of their arrival, and we re not going to anticipate. and actually, ukraine does not maintain their advantage at all at the moment. we still hold certain places, and that s pretty much it. but on land, yes. we have quite a lot of equipment which we ve been assembling for a year and a half, and international governments provide that. so, there will be a potential movement. but our commanders are extremely careful. they all know that mistakes right now is not something they want to do in order to show some quick movements within a shorter timeframe, just to deliver some expectations to the people at this time. so, they would be careful, and they will do their job correctly. mr. andrii zahorodniuk, thank you for taking the time to speak with us in the middle of the night. andrii zahorodniuk is a former ukrainian defense minister.