Ukraine managed to establish positions on the Russian-controlled bank of the Dnieper River in the south of the country, a regional authority appointed by Moscow admitted on Wednesday.
“About one and a half companies, divided into small groups, are in a stretch that runs from the railway bridge to the village of Krinki,” Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied areas of Jerson, said in Telegram.
Saldo is the first Russian official to admit that Ukrainian forces managed to cross the river in that area.
If the Ukrainian army manages to penetrate the Russian lines in this sector, it would be a significant success, since its extensive counteroffensive launched in June has not had the expected results.
A company, according to the glossary of military terms of the Russian press agency Tass, can be made up of several dozen or hundreds of soldiers.
Saldo tried to downplay this Ukrainian advance, stating that Russia deployed reinforcements and that Ukrainian forces are being bombed.
“Additional forces have been deployed. The adversary is trapped in Krinki, in a hell of bombs, rockets, ammunition with thermobaric systems, artillery and drones,” he indicated.
Saldo claimed that there were heavy losses on the Ukrainian side, not to mention the Russian side.
According to Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers and experts who analyzed information, the Ukrainian army managed to secure several positions since the end of October on the occupied bank of the Dnieper, in particular in Krinki in Kherson.
kyiv managed to deploy these men little by little using boats, according to the same source.
In order to penetrate deeply into this Russian-occupied region, the Ukrainian army will have to expand the area under its control and deploy heavier equipment. This sandy and swampy area remains difficult to access.
If Ukraine managed to consolidate its positions, it could expect an advance in that area of ????southern Ukraine where the Dnieper has acted as a front line since the Russian army had to withdraw from the right bank city of Kherson in November 2022.
Kiev maintains secrecy about its operations, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andri Iermak, simply said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were “positioned on the left bank of the Dnieper.”
In June, Ukrainian forces launched a broad counteroffensive in the south and east to recapture Russian-occupied territories, if successful.
Even the head of the Ukrainian army, Valeri Zalujni, in a rarely frank interview with The Economist, admitted in early November that the two armies were “at a dead end,” with a fixed front.
For Kiev, which wants to avoid the effect of fatigue among its Western allies in the face of a conflict that has lasted for almost two years – at a time when the eyes of the international community are directed towards Israel and the Gaza Strip -, it is imperative gain ground.
Ukraine relies heavily on weapons and ammunition provided by Americans and Europeans, and in many countries voices are growing to call for a reduction in Western economic and military support for Ukrainians.
The Kremlin, for its part, claims to have reoriented the economy toward the production of weapons and ammunition and recruited some 400,000 soldiers since the beginning of the year.