Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive in the south, aimed at pushing Russian troops back across the Dnieper River and retaking the occupied city of Kherson, local authorities said on Monday.
“Ukrainian armed forces launched their offensive in several areas in the south. We ask residents of Kherson to follow safety instructions: stay close to shelters and away from Russian positions,” the head of the regional administration Yaroslav Yanuchevych wrote on Telegram.
“We believe in the Ukrainian army! “, he concluded.
“Today there were powerful artillery attacks on enemy positions […] throughout the territory of the occupied Kherson region. This is the announcement of what we have been waiting for since spring: it is the beginning of the end of the occupation of the Kherson region”, also announced on Ukrainian television Sergei Khlan, local deputy and adviser to the governor. regional.
“What is happening now is the well-prepared and well-balanced start of a counter-offensive,” he confirmed to AFP, adding that “Ukrainian planes are now covering the entire front line” in this southern region of the country.
Mr. Khlan assured that the Ukrainian forces had “the advantage” on the southern front after several strikes in recent weeks having targeted bridges in the Kherson region and intended to hinder the logistics of the Russian army.
According to him, the “first line of defense” of the Russian forces in this region has been broken, forcing them “to withdraw”.
“The first stage (of the counter-offensive) is the right bank of the Kherson region. It is still difficult to talk about the liberation of the left bank,” he continued.
Ukrainian media had earlier quoted the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army’s “Southern” command, Natalia Goumenyuk, as saying that kyiv forces were attacking “from many directions” on this front.
The Ukrainian military group “Kakhovka” assured him on Facebook to observe the retreat of a unit of pro-Russian separatist fighters from their positions in the region.
These claims were unverifiable from an independent source.
At the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops seized Kherson, a city of 280,000 inhabitants located on the Dnieper River.
Essential for Ukrainian agriculture, this region is also strategic because it borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in March 2014.
For several weeks, the Ukrainian forces said they were preparing a counter-offensive to retake Kherson, but had so far only reported the conquest of several dozen villages.