Ukraine Says It’s Wrapping up Preparations for Counteroffensive

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov talks to media during an Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on April 21, 2023. (AFP)
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov talks to media during an Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on April 21, 2023. (AFP)
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Ukraine Says It’s Wrapping up Preparations for Counteroffensive

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov talks to media during an Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on April 21, 2023. (AFP)
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov talks to media during an Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on April 21, 2023. (AFP)

Ukraine is wrapping up preparations for a counteroffensive against Russian forces and is largely ready for it to go ahead, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday.

"As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it," he told an online news briefing.

He gave no date for when the counteroffensive would start but said: "Globally speaking, we are to a high percentage ready."

Kyiv hopes its planned counteroffensive will change the dynamics of the war that has raged since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago.

Russia holds swathes of Ukrainian territory in the east, south and southeast. Ukraine's military said in its latest daily report on the war that Bakhmut, a small city in the east, remained the focus of fighting.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that Kyiv's foreign allies and partners had delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine.

Reznikov said Ukraine had received a lot of modern equipment, including arms that would serve as an "iron fist", and that training on some Western equipment was continuing.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been training in the West to use different military assets on the battlefield in a combined way.



Car Bombing Kills 13 Pakistani Soldiers Near Afghan Border

A Pakistani policeman keeps watch on a roadside during the month of Muharram, in Lahore, Pakistan, 27 June 2025. EPA/RAHAT DAR
A Pakistani policeman keeps watch on a roadside during the month of Muharram, in Lahore, Pakistan, 27 June 2025. EPA/RAHAT DAR
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Car Bombing Kills 13 Pakistani Soldiers Near Afghan Border

A Pakistani policeman keeps watch on a roadside during the month of Muharram, in Lahore, Pakistan, 27 June 2025. EPA/RAHAT DAR
A Pakistani policeman keeps watch on a roadside during the month of Muharram, in Lahore, Pakistan, 27 June 2025. EPA/RAHAT DAR

An explosive-laden car rammed into a Pakistani military convoy on Saturday in a town near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 soldiers, sources said.

Four Pakistani intelligence officials and a senior local administrator told Reuters that the convoy was attacked in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan district.

Around 10 other soldiers were wounded, some critically, and they were being airlifted to a military hospital, the sources said.

"It was huge, a big bang," said the local administrator, adding that residents of the town could see a large amount of smoke billowing from the scene from a great distance.

One resident said that the explosion rattled the windowpanes of nearby houses, and caused some roofs to collapse.

No one has so far claimed responsibility.

The Pakistani military did not respond to a Reuters request for a comment.

The lawless district which sits next to Afghanistan has long served as a safe haven for different militant groups, who operate on both sides of the border.

Islamabad says the militants run training camps in Afghanistan to launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying the militancy is Pakistan's domestic issue.

Pakistani Taliban also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of several militant groups, has long been waging a war against Pakistan in a bid to overthrow the government.

The Pakistani military, which has launched several offensives against the militants, has mostly been their prime target.