The founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that in conditions of heavy slush, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) would not launch a counteroffensive. This was reported in the Telegram channel of his press service. Prigozhin noted that it is now impossible to move equipment on the territory, even pickup trucks cannot normally drive through the fields, not to mention tanks and other heavy equipment. The soil still needs about ten days to dry out, he said.

However, the founder of PMC "Wagner" is sure that the counteroffensive will still take place, but he does not name the exact date. He stressed that it is necessary to prepare for this in order to prevent a repetition of 1941.

Earlier, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Andrei Marochko, said that the Russian Armed Forces were ready to repel a possible counterattack from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He explained that the main task of the Russian military is to prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine from accumulating a sufficient number of forces and means for conducting a counteroffensive, so they strike "on enemy warehouses, equipment, and personnel."