Ukraine says it struck Kherson region as its forces push to take back Russian-held territory
Ukraine said its forces conducted strikes in the Kherson region in the country’s south Wednesday as its military tried to retake ground there that was seized by Russian forces near the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February.
In an update, Ukraine’s southern command said it had struck Russian command posts and logistical sites as well as bridges. The claims could not be independently confirmed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces had repulsed ground attacks by Ukraine in Kherson and the neighboring region of Mykolaiv. It also said it had destroyed tanks that were trying to cross the Inhulets River.
The claims could not be independently confirmed.
Ukraine has promised a counterattack in the Kherson region — a flat, agricultural area bisected by the Dnieper River — for weeks, and this week accelerated what had been sluggish movement in ground operations. The country has been under pressure for a significant offensive effort, deploying weapons supplied by the United States and other Western allies.
A British intelligence report Wednesday said that Ukraine had “pushed the front line back some distance in places, exploiting relatively thinly held Russian defenses.” It gave no further details.
For President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the fight to hold on to the region, where a referendum on further integration with Moscow is planned, is a test of military strength and of Moscow’s capacity to sustain what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have said that, for operational reasons, they will release only limited details of the fighting. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an overnight speech, made only passing reference to Kherson, which has been the scene of the heaviest combat along a front line that stretches for hundreds of miles, including the eastern Donbas region and the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
“Currently, active hostilities are taking place almost along the entire front line, in the south, in the Kharkiv region and in Donbas,” Zelenskyy said.
Military experts said the contours of the Ukrainian operation were visible despite an absence of detailed information. But one question is the extent of Ukraine’s military ambition, according to Mick Ryan, an Australian military expert. That could include retaking the land west of the Dnieper River, which includes the city of Kherson, or all of the south.
Critical to Russia’s ability to maintain its operation in Kherson is the resupply and reinforcement of its forces west of the river. For weeks, Ukrainian artillery has targeted Russian ammunition dumps and ground supply lines as well as bridges. Sustaining that effort and mounting a ground assault would be decisive in an operation in which speed but also patience would be key.
“The Ukrainian counteroffensive is thus a cohesive process that will require some time to correctly execute,” the Institute for the Study of War, a research group based in Washington, said in a report Wednesday.