allies and partners have provided ukraine with 1550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks to form units and help it retake territory from russian forces nato chief jens stoltenberg said on thursday equipment has been promised prepared and partially delivered in a global sense were ready reznikov said kyiv has said throughout the war launched by russia in february 2022 that it is intent on repelling moscows forces from territory they control in eastern and southern ukraine preparations are coming to an end reznikov added of the planned offensive only way to survive as soon as there is gods will the weather and the decision of the commanders we will do it but he added that washingtons promised abrams tanks will not have time to take part in this counteroffensive last month the pentagon said the abrams vehicles one of the most powerful and sophisticated weapons in the us army would arrive in ukraine in late 2023 most of the fighting has been focused on the eastern donbas region particularly the city of bakhmut which has been almost completely destroyed several ukrainian soldiers told afp that tough clashes in bakhmut involved not only members of mercenary group wagner but also russian special forces not far from bakhmut alex 34 said the situation was difficult we lack soldiers we have many wounded and also dead he said sometimes in the trenches you have to hide behind a corpse its the only way to survive russian deputy prime minister marat khusnullin said on friday he had paid a rare visit to the embattled city and vowed moscow would rebuild it in need of allies to support its drawnout war effort moscow has cultivated its relationship with china the leaders of ukraine and china spoke by telephone this week with chinese president xi jinping reportedly advocating peace talks xi and zelenskys discussion on wednesday was met by russian accusations that ukraine was undermining efforts to end the fighting zelensky said friday he had asked xi to help bring back ukrainian children deported by russia