Status: 08/29/2022 5:00 p.m
Ukrainian units are said to have started large-scale attacks in the south of the country – the target could be the occupied city of Cherson, among other things. According to Ukrainian information, the Russian army there has been weakened.
According to the Ukrainian army, it has launched a major offensive to recapture the city of Cherson in the south of the country, which has been occupied by Russian troops for months. “Strong artillery attacks on enemy positions were ongoing throughout the region,” deputy head of the regional council Serhiy Khlan told Pryamy TV. The responsible military command south announced that the offensive was going in different directions, including the region around the city of Cherson.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Counter-offensive was expected
“This is the announcement of what we have been waiting for since the spring – the beginning of the end of the occupation in the Kherson region,” Chlan continued. The aim is therefore to push the Russian troops back to the other bank of the Dnipro River. Cherson, located near the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia, was the first major city in Ukraine to be taken by the Russian army in early March after a three-day siege.
The civilian population was called on to leave the contested areas. For two months it has been expected that Ukraine will attack the territories occupied by Russia in the south. The government and army leadership had said this again and again.
“Undoubtedly weakened the enemy”
Ukraine’s Southern Command spokeswoman Natalia Humenyuk said recent attacks on Russian supply routes had “undoubtedly weakened the enemy.” Within the past week, ten Russian ammunition depots have been hit. She did not want to give any further information about the offensive. However, she pointed out that the Russian armed forces in the south were “quite strong” and had been built up over a longer period of time.
Russia currently controls around 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory. In the past few weeks, Russian troops have concentrated on the Donbass in the east with the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and southern Ukraine along the Black Sea coast. In recent times, however, the units have hardly advanced at all.
Ukrainian units have repeatedly succeeded in disrupting Russian supply lines and attacking weapons depots and bases in recent weeks. Weapons systems supplied from the West were also used.