JAKARTA - Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said his country was preparing one million troops armed with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) weapons to retake the southern region occupied by Russia.
Recapturing territory around the Black Sea coast is very important for the country's economy said, Oleksii Reznikov. The remarks come as Russia is making progress in taking territory in the eastern Donbas region.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, Reznikov praised Britain as 'key' in the transition, from providing Ukraine with Soviet-era weapons to NATO-standard air defense and ammunition systems. However, he said arms deliveries needed to be accelerated.
"We need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Every day we wait for howitzers, we could lose a hundred soldiers", he said.
"We have about 700,000 armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guards, we have about a million people", the defense minister said.
However, Dr. Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, cautions against the figures.
"This is not a million-force force that will counterattack", Watling told the BBC.
"Usually you want an operational surprise when you launch a counterattack, so announcing it publicly is partly about forcing Russia to deploy a wider range of resources to guard against this threat", Watling said.
Oleksii Reznikov said an offensive to retake some of the territory taken by Russia was "politically indispensable".
It is also economically important, not least to try to resume Ukraine's grain exports through the Black Sea ports.
Ukraine believes that, while Russia is focusing its military efforts in the east, now is a good time to try to retake the south. But in reality, most of the efforts and resources of the Ukrainian military have been consumed by the fierce fighting in the Donbas.
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Ukrainian confidence has been boosted by supplies of more sophisticated long-range artillery systems from Western countries led by the United States, but still not in the numbers Kyiv needs.
It is judged for morals, but can easily be stalled. So far the Ukrainian counter-offensive operations around Kharkiv and Kherson have had only limited success. They still needed time to rebuild their army.
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