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The Ukrainian counteroffensive, eventually postponed to the summer, was awaited with serious expectations. Ukraine had long been preparing for the fight: the country’s military and political leadership spent the first half of the year accumulating sufficient amounts of personnel and equipment, and their successes in the previous year’s autumn confirmed that the Ukrainian armed forces might actually be able to leverage the technological superiority offered by Western military technology. While the Ukrainians did not publicly disclose their military and political objectives, most analysts anticipated that the country would aim

to achieve a penetrating breakthrough and force significant territorial gains.

Ukraine would finally launch the operations originally expected in the spring on the 4th of June, as there were significant delays in training and the transfer of Western military technology. Contrary to the optimistic expectations of a swift breakthrough, the first visible element of the counteroffensive was in the Zaporizhian region, Orikhiv, where reports immediately pictured a stalling offensive. Images of Western armour bogged down in minefields circulated the global press. While the failure was exaggerated by the Russian propaganda machine, eagerly mocking the capabilities of Western military technology, hopes of a rapid breakthrough undeniably dissipated within a mere few weeks. From that point onwards, Ukrainians managed their forces more cautiously, but instead of the fast-paced, mechanized warfare that contributed to their success in Kharkiv the previous year, the counterattack slowed into grinding battles of attrition, playing more into Russia’s hands.