Moscow for its part affirmed Monday evening to have “failed” Ukrainian “offensive attempts”, while regions in the south of the country are occupied by the Russian army.
kyiv has launched a long-awaited counter-offensive in the south of the country against the territories occupied by Russia, the Ukrainian army announced on Monday. “Today we launched offensive actions in several directions, including in the Kherson regionsaid the Ukrainian public broadcaster suspension, citing the spokeswoman for the military command of the Ukrainian army positioned in the south of the country, Natalia Humeniuk. During a briefing a few minutes later, the spokeswoman reiterated her statements.
“Ukraine is taking back what is hers and will take back everything in the end – the regions of Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Crimea, the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov ( …)»hammered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily evening message. “The occupiers must know that we will push them back to our border, a line that remains unchanged (for us)»he continued.
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The Ukrainian counter-attack is essentially aimed at retaking Kherson, a city – of 280,000 inhabitants before the conflict – which fell into Russian hands at the start of the war, local officials announced. “The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched their offensive in several areas in the south. We ask the inhabitants of Kherson to follow the security instructions: stay close to the shelters and away from the Russian positions.the head of the regional administration Yaroslav Yanuchevych wrote on Telegram.
For two months, Ukraine has been talking about planning a counter-offensive in these southern regions occupied by the Russian army since the start of the invasion that began on February 24. Natalia Humeniuk also said that the recent Ukrainian strikes on the logistics axes linking southern Ukraine to Russia hadunquestionably weakened the enemyadding that more than ten Russian ammunition depots had been hit over the past week. Several strikes have indeed destroyed several major rail and road bridges in recent days, particularly on the Dnieper River.
No details were provided on this new counter-offensive. “Any military operation needs discretionsaid the spokeswoman, declining to provide further information on ongoing Ukrainian operations, and adding that Russian forces in southern Ukraine are “rather powerfuland had time to properly set up their positions.
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“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: this is the beginning of the end of the occupation of the Kherson region“, announced on Ukrainian television Serguiï Khlan, local deputy and adviser to the regional governor. The Ukrainian military groupingKakhovka“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 independent sources.
Russia says it madefail» offensives
For its part, the Russian army said on Monday that it had repelled “offensive attempts” Ukrainians in the regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, in the south of Ukraine, while claiming to have inflicted “heavy lossesto kyiv forces. “This new attempt at offensive operations by the enemy failed miserablythe Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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Essential for Ukrainian agriculture, Kherson 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 not until present reported that the conquest of several dozen villages.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has for his part made it known that he will once again welcome his counterparts from the allied countries to Germany on September 8 to organize Western support for Ukrainian military capabilities.