TOP HEADLINES

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says new armored vehicles will save thousands of lives on the battlefield, after revealing he will wait for the arrival of new tanks before launching a new offensive to recapture Russian-controlled territory.

• A Ukrainian drone attacked an oil storage depot in the Russian border region of Bryansk, the local governor said in a post on his Telegram channel on Thursday. READ MORE BELOW

• The founder of Russia's Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin said Ukrainian units had begun their counterattack, approaching Bakhmut from the flanks. Prigozhin said on Telegram that Ukrainian operations were "unfortunately, partially successful".

• A Ukrainian unit said it had routed a Russian brigade near Bakhmut, with Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine's ground forces, claiming Russian units had retreated by up to two kilometers as the result of counter attacks. 

• Russia's military operation against Ukraine is "very difficult" but will continue, Tass news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling a Bosnian television station.

• Britain has supplied Ukraine with multiple 'Storm Shadow' long-range cruise missiles, CNN reported on Thursday, citing multiple senior Western officials.

• Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reiterated on Thursday that he heard about the existence of a military object found in a Polish forest for the first time in April. On Wednesday two Polish media outlets reported that the object found in the forest was a Russian KH-55 missile which could have fallen there in December. 

IN DEPTH

Zelenskyy to wait for armored tanks before launching counteroffensive

Ukraine is holding fire until more Western armored vehicles arrive before it starts its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview released on Thursday.

"We still need a bit more time," Zelenskyy said in the interview with European broadcasters, according to the BBC.

Ukrainian forces had already received enough equipment from Western allies for a campaign, but some of the promised armored vehicles were still arriving. Waiting a bit longer for them would reduce casualties, he said.

"With [what we have] we can go forward and be successful," he said. "But we'd lose a lot of people. I think that's unacceptable."

The war in Ukraine coule be at a turning point, with Kyiv poised to unleash its new counter-strike after six months of keeping its forces on the defensive, while Russia mounted a huge winter offensive that failed to capture significant territory.

Western allies are sending hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine for its counteroffensive and have trained thousands of Ukrainian troops abroad.

Moscow's main target for months has been the small eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which it has come close to capturing but not quite taken in what would be its sole prize after months of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War II.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday