Kyiv readies for defining battle to retake Kherson
Thousands of Russian troops are ‘highly vulnerable’ after west-supplied weapons cut them off in the south, UK military analysts say.
A senior Ukrainian official told Russian troops to “retreat, surrender or be destroyed” as Kyiv launched a campaign to retake a key southern region.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelensky, said on Thursday that the campaign to recapture the Kherson region “has begun” and Ukraine aimed to cut off Russia’s invading forces from their supply lines.
The British defence ministry said Ukraine had used western-supplied long-range missiles to damage at least three bridges over the Dnipro River that Russia uses to resupply its forces. It said thousands of Russian troops were “highly vulnerable”.
Ukraine is believed to have used US Himars missiles to hit the 1000m Antonivskyi Bridge. It is likely to be “unusable”, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
Arestovych vowed that Ukraine would destroy Russian “ammunition depots, fuel, communications and command” before “mopping up the remnants of their forces”.
Zelensky said: “We are doing everything to ensure that the occupying forces do not have any logistical opportunities in our country.”
Kherson was one of the first Ukrainian cities to fall to Russia’s forces after the Kremlin launched its invasion on February 24. Officials installed by Moscow in the region have said they planned to hold a “referendum” this autumn on incorporating the region into Russia. The Kremlin used the same tactic when it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Mykhailo Podolyak, another Ukrainian presidential adviser, said Russian troops should “learn how to swim across” the Dnipro River or “leave Kherson while it is still possible”.
The push to reclaim the Kherson region came as five people were killed and more than 20 injured when Russian missiles hit hangars at a flight school in the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi. Fifteen people were injured as missiles struck the Vyshhorod district near Kyiv.
Russia also attacked Ukraine’s northern region of Chernihiv, with a barrage of missiles fired from neighbouring Belarus, an ally of Moscow.
Oleksiy Hromov, a Ukrainian military official, said there were losses among Ukraine’s forces but did not provide figures. The strikes came as Ukraine celebrated Statehood Day for the first time.
Zelensky accused Russia of “missile terrorism”. He said: “We will not give up. Do not intimidate us. Ukraine is an independent, free, indivisible state. And it will always be like that.”
In the Donetsk region, Russian-backed separatist forces seized Ukraine’s second-biggest power plant, their first big gain in three weeks. The capture of the Soviet-era Vuhlehirska power plant held only a “tiny tactical advantage” for Russia, Arestovych said. Ukraine claims that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed since the start of the war.
A Russian military analyst said Moscow’s losses meant it would be unable to make gains in Ukraine. “Russia does not have the strength to attack either Kharkov or Odesa,” said Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team.
“Not in the coming months, not in the next year, not in the next three to five years. It will take ten years or more to restore its equipment while it is international isolation,” he told a YouTube channel run by allies of Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader.
Ukraine is preparing to resume grain exports from its remaining Black Sea ports under a deal with Russia brokered by the UN and Turkey.
The Times
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