Ukrainian forces start "shaping" operations for counteroffensive

CNN reported the information, citing a senior US military official and a senior Western official.

The tactic is considered standard because it is used before major operations. Shaping itself involves hitting targets such as weapons depots, command centers, and armored vehicles and artillery systems to prepare the battlefield for the advancing forces. 

Such preparatory operations could last for many days before the main part of Ukraine's planned counteroffensive begins, a senior US military official said.

As the outlet recalls, when Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in the southern and northeastern parts of the country late last summer, it was also preceded by attacks to shape the battlefield. 

In addition, such "shaping" operations may be intended to confuse the enemy.

• On May 10, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, confirmed the information previously reported by military commanders that the Ukrainian Defense Forces forced Russian troops to retreat to a distance of up to 2 kilometers in the Bakhmut direction.

• And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine has the resources to return the territories seized by Russia during the full-scale war.

• After that, the Secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilov, said that the final plans for the Ukrainian Armed Forces' counteroffensive had not yet been approved.

• And Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for not considering the Ukrainian Armed Forces' counteroffensive, which is being widely discussed, to be the last one.