The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, boasted this Friday about the latest advances of his troops south of the Dnieper River, the natural barrier that separates them from the Crimean peninsula, although he admitted the impact that the Middle East conflict is having on supplies. of ammunition.
“Left bank of (the southern region of) Kherson. Our soldiers. Thank you for your strength and your advances,” he wrote on his Telegram channel and on X (formerly Twitter), also including photos of those military units.
These advances are crucial, since “general Winter” is at the door. Cold and snow will descend on Donbas and the southern front early next week, according to weather forecasts.
The Dnieper, Ukraine’s largest river, became the line of separation of forces a year ago when Russian troops withdrew from northern Kherson, a withdrawal that many in Moscow considered humiliating.
Zelensky published photos showing Ukrainian boats crossing the river, but also trenches dug on the bank by the units that have managed to get their boots on the other side of the Dnieper.
In this regard, the Marine Corps reported that it has “managed to establish itself in several outposts” after carrying out “a series of successful actions on the left bank.”
“In the course of these combats, the Russian occupiers have suffered significant losses of personnel and military equipment,” also says the note, published on Facebook, which speaks of more than 1,200 Russian soldiers dead and more than 2,200 wounded, in addition to 24 tanks. destroyed.
Furthermore, according to the General Staff, these units are already carrying out “sabotage operations” to destroy “the enemy’s logistical supply routes for ammunition and food.”
“The further away the Russian artillery is from Kherson, the better. One of the main objectives of this work is to push the enemy as far from the Right (Western) Bank as possible to protect the civilian population from constant Russian attacks.” , he points out.
The General Staff acknowledges that, due to the heavy casualties suffered by the enemy, Moscow has sent reinforcements to the area to expel the Ukrainians from their new positions with the help of mechanized units.
After two weeks of silence, the Russian Ministry of Defense finally spoke about the Dnieper front in its weekly report this Friday.
According to Defense, “the enemy has suffered more than 460 casualties between dead and wounded on the right bank of the Dnieper in an attempt to land on the islands” on the left bank.
kyiv would also have lost two tanks, 17 vehicles and a Grad shuttle in its attempts to cross the Dnieper, according to the report, which does not mention the possible Ukrainian presence south of the river.
Ukraine also recognized that the Russian army is trying to speed up its options to achieve the conquest this year of bastions such as Avdivka, Marinka and Kupiansk, especially the first, where thousands of Russian soldiers have already perished in perhaps the bloodiest battle of the entire war.
“They want to take Avdivka before the New Year. Today, there is fighting everywhere, but the Russians cannot advance (…) Under enemy fire there are almost a hundred towns in the north, east and south,” said Anna Malyar, former defense minister.
Speaking to the foreign press, Zelensky admitted for the first time that the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas has caused Western weapons supplies to decline.
In particular, he highlighted that the first thing they ordered in the Middle East were 155-millimeter artillery shells, which is why tens of thousands of howitzers destined for Ukraine ended up in Israel, according to the American press (Axios).
“It’s not that the US says: ‘We don’t give anything to Ukraine’. No. It’s that everyone is fighting for themselves. It’s life. I’m not saying it’s a positive thing, but we have to defend what is ours” , he claimed.
Zelensky confirmed the experts’ suspicions by assuring that the arsenals “are empty”, to which is added the shortage of anti-aircraft batteries to defend Ukrainian cities during the winter, while Russia continues to “accumulate missiles.” “The winter will be difficult, but no worse than the last,” he said.
At the same time, according to the Pentagon, Ukrainian pilots have already begun training in the operation of F-16 fighters both on US soil and in Europe.
To counteract the future arrival of these fighters in the Ukrainian skies, according to British intelligence, Moscow is trying to integrate its A-50 early warning planes with its S-400 anti-aircraft systems.
