“We believe in the Ukrainian army.” Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in the south of the country, in order to repel the Russian troops across the Dnieper River and retake the occupied city of Kherson on Monday August 29, according to local authorities.
The Russian bombardments have also not ceased on the front line. Local authorities notably reported strikes in the regions of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, where they killed one, and Mykolaiv, where they killed two and injured 24, according to these sources. In parallel, a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was on its way Monday to the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, occupied since March 4 by Russian forces. Franceinfo returns to the highlights of Monday August 29 on the front of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine announces counter-offensive to retake Kherson
“Ukrainian armed forces have launched their offensive in several areas in the south. We ask residents of Kherson to follow security instructions: stay close to shelters and away from Russian positions”announced the head of the regional administration Yaroslav Yanuchevych on Monday on Telegram.
Serguiï Khlan, local deputy and adviser to the regional governor, reported on Ukrainian television that “powerful artillery attacks on enemy positions (…) throughout the territory of the occupied Kherson region”. “Ukrainian planes are now covering the entire front line” in the region, he told AFP. “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”continued the local elected official.
For several weeks, Ukrainian forces had been talking about preparing a counter-offensive to retake Kherson, but so far they had only reported the conquest of a few dozen villages.
The Russian army, for its part, claimed to have repelled “offensive attempts” Ukrainians in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, claiming to have inflicted “heavy losses” to the Kyiv forces.
An IAEA mission en route to Zaporizhia
A mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to arrive in the next few days at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, after several weeks of bombardments of which Russian and Ukrainian forces have mutually accused each other, and the fear of a major accident.
“The day has come, the IAEA mission to Zaporizhia is now on its way. We must protect the security of Ukraine and the largest power plant in Europe”, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi announced on Twitter on Monday. He specified that the mission would arrive on the spot “later this week”.
“We have been waiting for this mission for a long time. We consider it necessary”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling for “to pressure the Ukrainian side to stop endangering the European continent by bombing the plant”. “This mission will be the toughest in IAEA history due to Russia’s combat activity on the ground”launched for his part the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba.
Upcoming meeting of defense ministers on Ukraine
The US Secretary of Defense will host his counterparts from allied countries in Germany on September 8 to organize support for Ukrainian military capabilities against Russia, the US Air Force Command in Europe announced on Monday.
The meeting, organized at the initiative of Washington, will take place at the American air base in Ramstein (Germany). Representatives of some forty countries met there in April and created a “contact group” on Ukrainian defence.