It was launched concurrently with Operation Uranus, the counteroffensive against the German assault on Stalingrad. He and Vasilevsky later planned the Stalingrad counteroffensive. UN forces began their final counteroffensive against the stalled KPA forces on August 15. The first Soviet counteroffensive against the German army was launched in August 1941 but failed. After the Ilovaisk counteroffensive, LPR forces regained Lutuhyne and other Luhansk suburbs. The 21st Regiment fought in the First United Nations Counteroffensive. The Soviet winter counteroffensive weakened the Wehrmacht, but did not destroy it. A VRS counteroffensive against the ARBiH in western Bosnia was launched on 23/24 September. Reds started their counteroffensive against Kolchak's forces at the end of April. Then he participated in Zhukov's counteroffensive before Moscow. It was the first successful major Soviet counteroffensive of the war. Richthofen's "Luftflotte 4" played a decisive role in the success of the German counteroffensive. That changed when Germany mounted a major counteroffensive on 16 December 1944. On 13 September, the Germans launched their counteroffensive. The main purpose of the counteroffensive was both political and diplomatic.