The Ukrainian army claims to have pushed the Russians “between three and eight kilometers” on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, occupied by Moscow, the first estimate of its advance in the area after months of fruitless counteroffensive.
kyiv hopes to soon break through Russian lines and liberate more occupied areas, but it is running into Russian firepower and solid defenses. Taking positions in depth on the left bank of the Dnieper could lead to a more ambitious Ukrainian operation in the south. The advance is discreet: “Preliminary figures range from 3 to 8 kilometers, depending on the particularities, geography and topography of the left bank,” said army spokesperson Natalia Gumeniuk, in statements to Ukrainian television cited by AFP. But what is paramount for kyiv is to be able to deploy large numbers of soldiers, vehicles and artillery equipment. Gaining a foothold in that area is difficult, surrounded by marshes under intense bombardment. Gumeniuk did not specify whether Kiev forces completely control this area of the southern region of Kherson, or whether the Russian army has retreated in the face of the Ukrainian push.
If the progress of these days is confirmed, it would be the biggest advance of the Ukrainian army against the Russian one in several months. The last significant success claimed by Ukraine in its counteroffensive was the liberation of the town of Robotyne, in August, in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.
Kiev launched in June, with the arms support of its Western allies, an expected counteroffensive against the invading Russian troops, which has not given the expected result and consisted of the Ukrainian army taking over a few towns in the south and east. . But already on Friday, kyiv said it had strengthened positions on the left bank of the Dnieper, and reported “intense fighting” and “strong Russian resistance” on that side of the front. Moscow did not immediately comment, although two Russian agencies reported last week of a tactical withdrawal by the Russians only to withdraw the news hours later.
In this area of southern Ukraine, the Dnieper has served as a front line since the Russian army withdrew from the city of Kherson in November 2022. But the Russians are still close and civilians continue to suffer. A three-year-old girl was injured during the bombing of Kherson and was in intensive care last night.
Ukraine continues to carry out an offensive operation in the direction of Melitopol. Meanwhile in Donbas, Russian troops do not give up their attempts to surround Avdiivka, but Ukrainian forces continue to maintain their positions.
Early Sunday morning, both kyiv and Moscow were targeted by Russian and Ukrainian drone attacks respectively, with no casualties reported. According to the Air Force command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the air defense forces shot down 15 of 20 drones. Air defense had to intervene in the kyiv, Chernigov and Poltava regions. Anti-aircraft defenses on each side intercepted most of the devices.
A Ukrainian drone managed to reach near the Russian capital, but “it was destroyed by air defense teams” in the Bogorodskoye district of the Moscow region. There were also Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region. The drone attacks Ukrainian attacks against the Moscow region were frequent in the spring, before and at the beginning of the Kiev counteroffensive, but had decreased in recent weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fears that Russia will increase its attacks on the energy system, to paralyze the country’s heating and electricity supply, as happened a year ago. “The closer we get to winter, the more the Russians will try to intensify their attacks,” warned Zelensky, who continues on the offensive. The kyiv Government delivered 2,000 drones to its troops on the front this weekend. Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov noted that Ukrainian drones destroyed 39 tanks, 57 heavy weapons and 34 armored vehicles in a single week.