At Ukrainian training ground, growing confidence about coming battle

From the sudden renewal of Russian missile barrages on Kyiv and other cities to Ukrainian strikes behind Russian lines, signs are multiplying that both sides are gearing up for Ukraine’s critical spring counteroffensive after 14-plus months of war.

Yet even as some analysts suggest that such deep Ukrainian strikes, including in long-occupied Crimea, signal the offensive has already begun, Ukraine is patiently and deliberately rotating some front-line forces for training to equip them for the main battlefield push to come.

Among the Ukrainian troops, their work on these proving grounds appears to amplify a sense of confidence, rather than foreboding.

At one recent session, on an eastern Ukrainian practice range marked by rolling hills, spring sun, and distant targets obliterated by firepower, a bald Ukrainian soldier who gives the name Vitalii enthuses about 30mm grenade launchers so old they could have been used by his father during