senior Ukrainian safety official has mentioned the nation is able to launch a counter-offensive in opposition to Russian forces.

Oleksiy Danilov mentioned an assault to retake territory from Vladimir Putin’s forces might start “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.

Mr Danilov, who's the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, mentioned Ukraine is able to reap the benefits of this “historic opportunity” that “we cannot lose”.

Asked if Ukrainian armed forces have been prepared for the offensive, he advised the BBC: “We are always ready. The same as we were ready to defend our country at any time. And it is not a question of time.

“We have to understand that that historic opportunity that is given to us - by God - to our country we cannot lose, so we can truly become an independent, big European country.”

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He added: “It could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week.

“It would be weird if I were to name dates of the start of that or those events. That cannot be done…. We have a very responsible task before our country. And we understand that we have no right to make a mistake.”

His feedback come after Belarus yesterday signed a deal permitting Russian nuclear weapons to be deployed on its territory.

The transfer formalised a plan agreed earlier by Vladimir Putin and Belarusian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko.

Putin had introduced in March that his nation deliberate to deploy tactical, comparatively short-range and small-yield nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russian forces are believed to have seized management of Bakhmut following months of combating though it's thought as much as 20,000 Wagner Group troops have been killed seizing it.

Due to this, Wagner Group forces have begun to withdraw from the city of Bakhmut and will likely focus on other offensive operations in the Donbas region, according to British intelligence chiefs.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) mentioned in its newest intelligence replace that the mercenary group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had mentioned the withdrawal had begun and positions have been being transferred to Russian defence ministry forces. Kyiv corroborated Wagner’s rotation out from town’s outskirts.

The MoD mentioned that forces of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic had in all probability entered the jap Ukrainian metropolis since Wednesday to start out “clearance operations” as of May 24.