Ukraine’s southern Kherson region is experiencing intensified Russian shellingwhile information emerges that the invading Army could be preparing to launch a new offensive against the province, as well as against the neighboring one Zaporizhzhia.
Russian forces are trying to establish a foothold on the Ukrainian-controlled western bank of the Dnieper River, which acts as a front line, he told Radio Freedom the spokesman of the ‘South’ group of the Ukrainian armed forces, Vladislav Voloshin.
At this time, Russian activity does not yet amount to a full-scale assault across the Dnieperhe assured.
However, each day small groups of infantry launch between five and seven assaults against the river islets, while last week an attempt by Moscow to take up positions near Kherson itself was repulsed.
Russia could employ up to 4,000 personnel to try to establish a foothold on the other side of the Dnieper in Kherson, they told the network RBK-Ukraine sources from the Ukrainian military command this Monday.
It could also launch assaults near Piatijatki in the neighboring region of Zaporizhzhia, in an attempt to get closer to the regional capital, 40 kilometers awayand intensify its bombardment by artillery.
Capturing more territories in these regions would strengthen Russia’s position in the face of hypothetical negotiations and strengthen its demand to obtain control of these provinces in their entirety.
They are now under partial occupation and with their capitals in Ukrainian hands.
“The enemy’s plans are known, the Defense Forces are ready for anything and some Russians are already successfully feeding the crabs in the Dnieper“, declared the head of the government Center for the Fight against Disinformation, Andrí Kovalenko, on Telegram.
“Putin’s plan to up the ante will not work,” he said on Telegram, alluding to the Russian president.
“We have become accustomed to Russian attacks since the city was liberated more than two years ago, but we have never experienced attacks as large as those last Friday,” he told the news agency. EFE by phone from Kherson Oksana Pogomí, member of the local assembly.
While enemy attacks normally affect the districts closest to the river, That day, the entire city suffered a massive attack in which the Russians used about a thousand artillery shells, according to local authorities.
In the following days, Russia launched at least thirteen guided aerial bombs against the city, causing damage to its cancer hospital, while drones have continued to “hunt” passersby at random, Pogomí said.
“The Russians are trying to turn Kherson into a dead city by destroying its civil infrastructure, its logistics, transportation, ambulances, dropping bombs from drones on people in the street“, Taras Chmut, Army veteran and president of the NGO Vuelve a Casa Vivo, told Ukrainska Pravda this Tuesday.
The Russians do not have the potential to take Kherson or Zaporizhia right now, although they could get much closer to these cities and force Ukraine to spend valuable forces containing them, Chmut noted.
Russia does not have enough forces in the area, but it aims to convince the American president-elect, Donald Trump, that It is better to negotiate than to try to defeat themargued military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko in his analysis for the Resistencia Informativa group.
Due to constant Russian attacks, Kherson residents try to complete all their chores in the morning and spend as little time as possible on the streets, Pogomí told EFE.
Despite the danger, volunteers from his NGO Sprava Hromad continue weaving camouflage nets for soldiers and baking bread for neighbors, he explained.
The Russians will not have it easy, since the river represents a strong natural defense barrier and its banks are well fortified and mined, local politics noted.
“We need more artillery shells and other weapons to be sure we can stop the Russians. Because the city will not survive another occupation,” Pogomí urged, while explosions could be heard in the background.
(With information from EFE)
