KYIV CORRESPONDENTS AND WIRE SERVICES

THE GREAT UKRAINIAN OFFENSIVE, which has been missing in action for some days now, has made contact with those desperately searching for it in the endless flat lands of southeastern Ukraine.

“Yes, signs of life have been detected in some sections of the front,” insisted a NATO officer who is observing the fighting as a private citizen. “Noise has been heard from contact points. There’s still hope.”

The offensive, which is now in its third week, lost contact with the world and provoked a furious campaign to recover it by western media organs, including stories of liberation and derring-do by the Ukrainians and retreat and surrender by the Russians.

“We have been on tenterhooks for days,” said a CIA agent on a walking trip with his family in the Donbass. “But it appears that the offensive is being rescued – for now. But it’s a dangerous task. Anything can happen.Anything.”