“As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” he told an online news briefing.

He gave no date for when the counter-offensive would start but said: “Globally speaking, we are to a high percentage ready.”

Kyiv hopes its planned counter-offensive will change the dynamics of the war that has raged since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago.

Russia holds swathes of Ukrainian territory in the east, south and southeast. Ukraine’s military said in its latest daily report on the war that Bakhmut, a small city in the east, remained the focus of fighting.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said this week that Kyiv’s foreign allies and partners had delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine.

Reznikov said Ukraine had received a lot of modern equipment, including arms that would serve as an “iron fist”, and that training on some Western equipment was continuing.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been training in the West to use different military assets on the battlefield in a combined way.