This morning, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces hinted that a counteroffensive against Russia’s forces inside Ukraine could be imminent.
“The time has come to take back what is ours,” General Valerii Zaluzhyhi wrote Saturday morning.
The text appears underneath a video just over a minute in length showing Ukrainian forces apparently training at sunrise.
The trouble is that Zaluzyhi allegedly suffered a head injury and multiple shrapnel wounds and was initially given first aid in Nikolaev, after a Russian missile strike in early May, and was later taken by helicopter to a military hospital in Kiev. The extent of Zaluzhnyi's injuries likely means that he will not be able to continue his service, an unidentified official claimed.
So which is it? Is he still the Commander-in-Chief or is he "unable to command" due to a head wound, and thus might merely be rambling on account of that wound?
UPDATE 7:57 AM EDT --
One of the country's most senior security officials has told the BBC the Ukraine Counter-Offensive is, in fact, ready to start.
Oleksiy Danilov would not name a date but said an assault to retake territory from President Vladimir Putin's occupying forces could begin "tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week".
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".
As secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Mr. Danilov is at the heart of President Volodymyr Zelensky's de facto war cabinet.
His rare interview with the BBC was interrupted by a phone message from President Zelensky summoning him to a meeting to discuss the counter-offensive.
During the interview, he also confirmed that some Wagner mercenary forces were withdrawing from the city of Bakhmut, the site of the bloodiest battle of the war so far - but he added they were "regrouping to another three locations" and "it doesn't mean that they will stop fighting with us".
Mr Danilov also said he was "absolutely calm" about Russia beginning to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus, saying: "To us, it's not some kind of news."
Ukraine has been planning a counter-offensive for months. But it has wanted as much time as possible to train troops and to receive military equipment from Western allies.
In the meantime, Russian forces have been preparing their defenses.
Much is at stake because the government in Kyiv needs to show the people of Ukraine - and Western allies - that it can break through Russian lines, end the effective military deadlock and recapture some of its sovereign territory.
