In the Russian-occupied Cherson region in southern Ukraine, the long-promised Ukrainian offensive began on Monday. “Offensive actions have begun in many directions in southern Ukraine, including the Kherson region,” an army spokeswoman said.
Earlier, US television channel CNN reported that Kyiv was “preparing the battlefield for a significant offensive” that would include airstrikes and ground operations, according to two senior US officials. The preparation, the so-called shaping, includes attacks on the enemy’s weapon systems, ammunition depots and control centers – this is exactly what the Ukrainian army has been doing in recent weeks.
Using Himar rocket launchers, the Ukrainian army destroyed almost all the important bridges connecting the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula with the Kherson region. So the Russian troops there were cut off from supplies. According to a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army, the main target was Russian ammunition depots.
The grueling attacks seem to have had an effect. According to CNN sources, the Russian army in the south is weakened, Moscow’s tactical groups of infantry, tanks, artillery and air defense are suffering from a noticeable lack of personnel, some are missing half the crew.
However, it is unclear whether the current fighting is actually the major counter-offensive that the Ukrainians have been longing for. There are doubts as to whether Kyiv has been able to gather enough forces for a successful counter-offensive. WELT sources in the Ukrainian military do not speak of a full-fledged counter-offensive. It’s about something else: pushing Russian troops out of a number of important positions.
Apparently, there is fighting around villages south of the city of Krivyi Rih. According to the information, if the offensive succeeds there, it could continue in the direction of Nowa Kakhovka, a town east of Cherson. Even the capture of Nowa Kakhovka would be a success for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The city is located on the Kakhovka reservoir on the lower reaches of the Dnepr, where the North Crimean Canal begins, an important source of water for the Russian-occupied peninsula. The American think tank Institute for the Study of War already recorded this partial offensive in its situation report on Sunday.
In Nowa Kachowka, the Russian occupation authorities ordered an evacuation on Monday, and people were taken to air-raid shelters. At the same time, Russian regime-loyal military bloggers, including Igor Strelkov, former “defense minister” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic,” speak of tactical successes by the Ukrainian armed forces before Kherson.
The state-owned Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications wrote on Twitter that the Ukrainian armed forces had broken through “the first line of defense of the occupiers at Kherson”. Russian authorities and officials have declared the offensive to be “fake news”, as has Sergei Aksyonov, governor of the Russian-held Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.