Ukraine mounts counter-offensive to drive Russians back

Ukraine said it carried out an airstrike on Kherson airport, which is now a Russian air base.

Ukrainian forces take the fight back to the Russians, launching an air strike on helicopters stationed on the occupied air base at Kherson. Picture: Planet Labs via AFP

Ukraine officials say its military has launched a counter-offensive in the capital, Kyiv, and other key cities.

The thump of distant shelling echoed through the centre of Kyiv overnight on Tuesday, while Ukrainian forces appeared to counterattack in the outlying towns of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have been severely damaged in weeks of street fighting and artillery exchanges. The city and the surrounding region were under an all-day curfew on Wednesday.

Ukrainian forces also said they pressed an offensive south and east of the southern port of Mykolayiv, moving in the direction of Kherson, the only regional capital occupied by Russia since the war began February 24.

Ukraine said it carried out an airstrike on the Kherson airport, which is now a Russian air base, and satellite imagery of the tarmac showed seven destroyed or damaged Russian helicopters, some engulfed in flames. Kyiv also said it shot down two Russian Su-30SM jets over the Black Sea off Odesa.

Russia aimed for a quick capture of Kyiv, and its forces thrust deep into Ukrainian territory up to the city’s outskirts in the north, west and east in the first days of the war.

But that offensive stalled amid poor planning and logistics, and unexpectedly stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces armed with Western-provided anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

The counter-offensive by Ukrainian armed forces “radically changes the parties’ disposition”, tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser engaged in peace talks with Moscow.

The Wall Street Journal