According to military experts, rocket attacks on Russian positions and reports from the Ukrainian army are the first signs that the long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive on the city of Cherson has begun. For two months it has been expected that Ukraine will attack the territories occupied by Russia in the south.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine launched offensive actions in many directions in the south of Ukraine,” said Nataliya Humenyuk, head of the joint press center of the security and defense forces “South”. The relevant military command calls on the civilian population to leave areas where fights threatened.
A group within the Ukrainian army called “Kakhovka” said on Facebook that it had chased soldiers of the 109th regiment of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” from their positions. Allegedly, Russian paratroopers are said to have withdrawn in the course of this.
In addition, she posted a video of an alleged Russian soldier, who, under cover, said that Ukrainian forces had broken through the Russian defense line with artillery fire. This information cannot be independently verified, however, the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainiska Pravda writes that several of its sources have confirmed the information.
The group previously posted on Facebook that all major bridges in Kherson, including the Antonivka Bridge and more recently the Novaya Kakhovka Bridge, had been destroyed. Thus, the Russian forces are now said to be cut off from their supply camps on the east side of the Dnipro.
Ukrainian media also report that Ukrainian forces attacked the Berislav machine-building plant in the Kherson region, where Russian troops stationed their equipment, ammunition and manpower. It should now be on fire.
Also, the ex-military leader of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Igor Girkin – also known by the pseudonym Igor Strelkov – tweeted that Ukrainian forces not only hit targets behind the front line in Russian-held Kherson with artillery, but also hit the front and infantry directly would have shot at. This information cannot be independently confirmed.
Russian soldier and military blogger Anatoly Driomov wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday afternoon that the Russian army had suffered “very heavy casualties”. “There is a risk of losing Cherson,” writes Drjomov. Ukraine would “fire with everything it has”.
Meanwhile, the Russian military blogger Rybar, who is considered to be very well informed about what is happening at the front, doubts that the Ukrainian reports about the start of a counter-offensive are true. “There is no information from Posad-Pokrovskyi [in Mykolaiv] and no information about a real attack on Kherson,” he writes on his Telegram channel.
Instead, the Ukrainians launched an attack on another part of the front – from the direction of Kryvyi Rih, a place between Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia.
The Russian military blogger “Rusvarg”, on the other hand, reports on his Telegram channel about attacks from the direction of Mykolaiv with the help of Ukrainian tanks in the village of Posad-Pokrovksy, “heavy fighting” is currently taking place there – he contradicts the statements of “Rybars”, who has not yet found any Confirmation of fighting in the region sees.
