Ukrainian forces are now conducting a renewed counteroffensive operation in their country’s Kherson region, where invading Russian troops have taken control of significant portions of territory — including the regional capital, Kherson — since the current war in Ukraine began after Russian forces began rampaging across the entire country starting in late February.
“Ukraine announced on Monday the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago, a move reflecting Kyiv’s growing confidence as Western military aid flows in,” Reuters reported. Serhiy Khlan, who according to the Ukrainian government information source Ukrinform serves on the Kherson Regional Council, said Ukrainian troops broke through a Russian line of defense in the region. “The first line of Russian defenses on the Kherson front has been breached (!),” Khlan said in remarks Ukrinform publicized on Monday. “The geography of the destruction of the [Russians] is expanding. Last night and in the first half of this day alone, Ukrainian Army strikes hit Kherson, Antonivka, Oleshky, Nova Kakhovka, Liubymivka, and Beryslav.”
Ukrinform cited a specific Russian regiment and air assault unit that abandoned previous positions. The referenced military formations include the 109th “DPR” regiment and a Russian air assault unit there to back up the regiment. DPR refers to the Donetsk People’s Republic, a claimed independent republic founded on Ukrainian territory and formally recognized by the Russian government shortly before its invasion of Ukraine. The so-called republic isn’t broadly taken as legitimate. As for the broader counter-offensive operations in the Kherson area, Ukrainian military spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk said Ukrainian troops “started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,” although she didn’t provide many specific details about these efforts. In the meantime, Humeniuk said at a Monday briefing that Ukraine struck over 10 Russian ammunition storage facilities in the preceding week.
Reports separately suggest over 10 Ukrainian strikes recently landed in Nova Kakhovka, which is in the Kherson region, and other reports say that according to local sources a Russian military base in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city was recently completely destroyed. “In short, there is no Sokil plant anymore, that’s all. Everything inside was bombed out,” somebody evidently stated in a video of the scene. (The comments refer to the location of the targeted base.) Khlan confirmed a strike on the plant. Ukrainian leaders are continuing to push for military assistance, meaning weapons, from other countries.
