(Photo: AFP)NEAR BAKHMUT, Ukraine: Near the frontline city of Bakhmut, members of a Ukrainian tank unit say they are all set for the expected spring offensive against Russian forces in the country's east. Surrounded by trees on an overcast day, crew chief Oleksandr and three other soldiers use a special six-metre rod to clean the cannon of their T-72 tank. Ukraine says that for months it has been preparing an offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south. Analysts regularly cite those southern areas as potential backdrops to the Ukrainian forces' spring offensive. But for Ivan, a 24-year-old mechanic busy cleaning his tank machine gun, the offensive "will not change things as quickly as everyone wants".
