Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president, said on Wednesday it appeared that Ukraine had launched its long-awaited counter-offensive and that Moscow should respond with its own offensive once it had repelled Kyiv's forces.
"The enemy has long promised a great counter-offensive. And it seems to have already started something," Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging application.
"We have to stop the enemy and then launch an offensive," he said.