Ukraine ready to launch offensive at any time, top security official says

Danilov said this in an interview with the BBC. 

According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are ready for an offensive, but will launch it when commanders calculate that "we can get the best result at this point of the war."

He warned that Ukraine's government had "no right to make a mistake" on the decision because this was an "historic opportunity" that "we cannot lose".

"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," Danilov said. 

At the same time, he refused to talk about a specific timeframe for the start of the Ukrainian offensive. 

"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," Danilov emphasised.

He also rejected the assumption that the counteroffensive had already begun due to strikes on the Russian rear. 

"Destroying Russian command centres and Russian military equipment has been the task of the Ukrainian armed forces since February 24 last year, the date when Russia began its invasion. We have no days off in this war," Danilov said. 

• On May 23, the head of the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Ukraine has the necessary minimum of weapons to launch a counteroffensive.