Ukraine launches massive counter-attack in Kherson Oblast region, claims major breakthrough

The Ukrainian army has launched a massive counter-attack against Russia’s invading forces, hoping to retake the city of Kherson.

Ukraine’s army has launched a massive counter-attack against Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and claims to have scored a major breakthrough.

There is “heavy fighting” in “almost the entire territory” occupied by the Russian military, Ukraine’s government said on Tuesday.

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#Ukrainian military officials announced the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in #Kherson Oblast on August 29. Ukrainian officials reported that Ukrainian forces have broken through the first line of defenses in unspecified areas.https://t.co/oIA1UarL0wpic.twitter.com/HW5aXnO18E

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) August 30, 2022

Ukraine has begun a major counteroffensive to retake Kherson city and the southern region of the same name. Picture: AFP

“Powerful explosions continued throughout the day and throughout the night in Kherson region,” the president’s office said.

“Heavy fighting is taking place in almost the entire territory of the Kherson region. The armed forces of Ukraine launched offensive actions in various directions,” it added.

Regional officials said the long-awaited offensive was “the beginning of the de-occupation of Kherson region”.

Local media reported the Ukrainian army had “broken through” the first line of Russian defence in Kherson Oblast region.

The Ukrainian army was seeking to take advantage of disrputed Russian ground lines of communication caused by HIMARS strikes over many weeks, the Institute for the Study of War reported.

From “Kyiv will fall within 72 hours” to “Russian defenses in Kherson Oblast have been broken.”
Goodnight from Ukraine.

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) August 29, 2022

Just a note, if Russian forces are forced to abandon the northern bank of the Dnipro, they aren't going to have many options other than leaving a ton of equipment and supplies behind. https://t.co/hqQcskma3o

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 29, 2022

It came as Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Ukrainian troops would chase the Russian army “to the border” in his nightly wartime address.

“If they want to survive — it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,” he said.

“Ukraine is regaining its own. And it will regain the Kharkiv region, Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia region, Kherson region, Crimea.”

In an intelligence note, Britain’s defence ministry said although it was “not yet possible to confirm the extent of Ukrainian advances”, its army had increased “artillery fire in front line sectors across southern Ukraine”.

It added that it was using “long-range precision strikes to disrupt Russian resupply” lines.

At least four people were killed on Tuesday as Russian shelling hit the centre of Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.

“The Russian occupiers shelled the central districts of Kharkiv,” Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram, giving a toll of four dead and another four injured and warning residents to “stay inside the shelters”.

Russian forces seized Kherson, a town of 280,000 inhabitants, on March 3.

Mr Zelensky vowed that Ukrainian troops would chase the Russian army ‘to the border’ in his nightly wartime address.

Regional officials said the long-awaited offensive was ‘the beginning of the de-occupation of Kherson region’.

It was the first major city to fall following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

“Today there was a powerful artillery attack on enemy positions in … the occupied Kherson region,” local government official Sergey Khlan told Ukraine’s Pryamyi TV channel.

“This is what we have been waiting for since the spring – it is the beginning of the de-occupation of Kherson region.”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Ukraine’s move was already having an impact on Russian military capabilities as it forced them to reposition forces and deplete some units in the east.

“Because the Russians have had to pull resources from the east simply because of reports that the Ukrainians might be going more on the offence in the south,” Mr Kirby told reporters on Monday, CNN reported.

A senior Pentagon official said Russia was struggling to find soldiers to fight in Ukraine and that many new recruits were older, in poor shape and lacking training.

There is ‘heavy fighting’ in ‘almost the entire territory’ occupied by the Russian military, Ukraine’s presidency said on Tuesday.

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile claimed it had repulsed attacks in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions and inflicted “heavy losses” on Ukrainian forces.

The spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command, Nataliya Gumenyuk, had said Kyiv’s forces were attacking from many directions to push the Russians back to the other bank of the Dnipro river.

In an update on Facebook early on Tuesday, the Southern Command said the situation remained “tense” in its area of operations.

“The enemy attacked our positions five times, but was unsuccessful,” it said. The city of Mykolaiv, just northwest of Kherson, had come under “massive bombardment” from Russian anti-aircraft missiles, with two civilians killed and 24 wounded, it said.