The think tank has also noted a general increase in military activity across the front line, but not all of it is part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive effort.
The Institute for the Study of War has announced that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive has begun.
Ukrainian forces have not disclosed the details of their mission. However, the think tank said it would likely consist of many companies in numerous locations of varying intensity and would not be developed as a single operation.
Initial setbacks are also expected. The main focus of Ukraine’s defensive operation remains sealed off to prevent Russian troops from premeditating any attack.
It comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s army announced on Wednesday that they had gone on the offensive in the eastern city of Bakhmut.
The industrial hub has been at the forefront of Russia’s war effort since the summer of 2022.
Nine wounded in Kherson
Meanwhile, a Russian attack in central Kherson injured nine people, according to Ukraine’s interior ministry.
“Nine people were injured as a result of the shelling,” the ministry said on Telegram, separately specifying that it had “received no information” about any deaths.
This figure was confirmed by the regional governor, Oleksander Prokudin, who added that the victims included “two rescuers, a police officer, a nurse and a German volunteer”.
In recent days, Ukrainians have accused the Russian military of attacking Kherson, just as authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from flooded areas after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam upstream of the Dnieper River.
Separately, officials based in Moscow claimed that the Ukrainian army targeted the evacuation of civilians and killed two earlier Thursday.
