Ukraine steps up drive to take south back from Russia with airstrikes

Ukraine has boosted its drive to retake Russian-controlled southern Kherson region with the help of airstrikes, five months into a war between the two ex-Soviet states.

Russia began its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, to demilitarize and ‘de-Nazify’ its neighbor and to “liberate” Donbas, composed of two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Russian military has already announced that it had fully captured Luhansk and has concentrated its efforts to “liberate” the other region.

Ukraine, increasingly equipped with Western-supplied weapons, has vowed to retake its southern region of Kherson, which soon after the onset of the operation fell under the control of Russian forces.

On Thursday, Kiev said in a statement that its warplanes had pounded at least five Russian strongholds around the city of Kherson, the most politically significant area occupied so far by Moscow, and another city in the region.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Ukraine's counter-offensive in Kherson “is gathering momentum”, just a day after Kiev confirmed that it had attacked the Antonivsky Bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Kherson.

Kherson, the most politically significant population center occupied by Russia, is now virtually cut off from the other occupied territories, it said, adding the city's loss would severely undermine Russia’s military campaign.

Moscow orders troops to prioritize destroying Ukraine’s Western-supplied long-range missiles

The Western-supplied weapons include long-range arms which Kiev says are beginning to help on the battlefield.

Sergiy Khlan, an aide to the head of Kherson region, said on the Ukrainian television late last week that the Kherson region would be recaptured by Ukrainian troops by September.

Moscow said it was not taken off-guard by Ukraine’s efforts. The Russian defense ministry said its warplanes had attacked a Ukrainian infantry brigade in the far north of the Kherson region, killing more than 130 soldiers in the last previous 24 hours.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration running the Kherson region, also rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation on Wednesday.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr “Zelensky’s statement that Kherson region will be liberated in three to six weeks is...a lie. All these counter-offensives that result in a large number of Ukrainian casualties are coming to nothing,” Stremousov said.

His remarks came after Zelensky vowed that Ukrainian forces would do “everything to ensure that the occupying forces do not have any logistical opportunities” in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Kiev confirmed that Russian forces had seized the Soviet-era coal-fired Vuhlehirsk power plant, Ukraine’s second largest. The capture is Russia’s most significant gain in Donbas in more than three weeks. 

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