Brady Knox of the Washington Examiner reports, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksil Reznikov has claimed that they are amassing a million-man army to retake the southern coastal areas. He writes (abridged):
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed that his country is amassing a million-strong fighting force to retake the southern regions of Ukraine.
The planned counteroffensive, equipped with Western weapons, was ordered by President Volodymyr Zelensky to retake Ukraine’s coastal regions due to their vitality to the country’s economy, Reznikov said in an exclusive interview with the Times of London. […]
“There is no indication that the Ukrainians have either the troops or the war materiel to conduct such an offensive at this time,” Tyler Weaver, an author, military analyst, and former Army officer, told the Washington Examiner. “They are currently struggling to adequately supply, equip, and man the forces defending their front line, which amount to something less than half the size of this ‘counteroffensive force.’ The Western aid and new recruits that could form such a force (albeit not on the scale advertised) have been universally sent to the front line to plug holes instead.”
Zelensky claimed that Ukraine had 700,000 soldiers in total in a televised address in late May, according to Euronews. Other analysts last month believed the true number was closer to 500,000, speaking to the Guardian.