Heavy fighting broke out in southern Ukraine after the start of a Ukrainian offensive. It is unclear who has the upper hand – both sides claim success for themselves. Moscow speaks of a failure of the advance, a Ukrainian authority gives a different picture.
The success of the announced major Ukrainian offensive in the south of the country remains unclear. A Ukrainian regional authority is now reporting on advances made by the Ukrainian military in Russian-held areas near the city of Kherson. The same applies to the cities of Beryslav and Kakhovka, Deputy Head of the Kherson Regional Council, Yurik Sobolevskyi, told Ukrainian television. He didn’t want to give details.
Almost at the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Ukrainian counter-offensive in southern Ukraine had failed. Russia claims to have inflicted heavy casualties on the neighboring country’s troops. More than 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers have already been killed, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow.
In addition, according to army spokesman Igor Konashenkov, Russian troops destroyed 63 tanks, 48 ??armored vehicles and 4 fighter planes. This information could not be independently verified. Kyiv’s attempt to resume the offensive in southern Ukraine between Mykolayiv and Kryvyi Rih and in other directions failed, Konashenkov said.
Since the beginning of the offensive, the Ukrainian leadership has not released any information about its course. Russian sources, on the other hand, wrote that the troops loyal to Moscow had come under severe pressure themselves in some sections.
The Ukrainian army launched an offensive on Monday to recapture the Cherson region occupied by Russian troops. On Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office reported heavy fighting in “almost the entire region”. Several Russian ammunition depots and almost all major bridges over the Dnipro River were destroyed in the region.
In the town of Bereznehuvate, some 70 kilometers north of Kherson near the front line, reporters heard heavy artillery fire while numerous Ukrainian armored vehicles drove by. Military experts had predicted an increase in fighting in southern Ukraine, as neither side is making any progress in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass – and both Russia and Ukraine are therefore trying to make headway in the south before the onset of winter.
The Cherson region, with its capital of the same name on the banks of the Dnipro, borders on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. Cherson was the first major city in Ukraine to be taken by the Russian army in early March, shortly after the start of the war. The region is of central importance for agriculture and is also strategically important due to its proximity to Crimea.
