According to Western military sources, Ukraine’s campaign to recover the seized Kherson region is “gaining momentum.” After being attacked by Ukrainian forces using long-range rockets provided by the US, a crucial bridge leading into the city of Kherson is currently inoperable.
The city is currently “essentially sealed off from another occupied territory,” according to UK defence authorities. Senior Ukrainian officials cautioned, however, that Russia was now repositioning its soldiers to defend the southern region.
The city was the first in the conflict to fall to Moscow’s soldiers and was strategically situated west of the Dnipro River.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian soldiers used a Himars artillery rocket system to fire at the Antonivskiy Bridge in Kherson, rendering the crossing “totally useless,” according to Western military sources.
One of two important crossings over the Dnipro river that have already been struck is claimed to be reduced to little more than a pitted wreck.
Moscow’s troops stationed west of the river depend on the crossings for supplies, and they now run the risk of being cut off from the remainder of the country’s occupying forces. To the northeast of Kherson City, a third bridge that crosses the Inhulets River has also been damaged.
The loss of Kherson, according to military officials, “would gravely undercut Russia’s attempts to present the occupation as a success.” Kherson is “politically the closest Russia has to a diamond in the crown of its occupation.”
The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the area was “gaining momentum,” according to UK defence experts, who also noted that Kyiv’s forces had probably secured a bridgehead south of the Inhulets river, “which defines the northern frontier of Russian held Kherson.”
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, stated on Wednesday night that Moscow was currently “moving the highest amount of troops towards the Kherson direction.”
The BBC has not been able to independently confirm his claims, but Oleksiy Arestovych, a presidential adviser for Ukraine, acknowledged that Russian forces were moving to the south in preparation for a counteroffensive and shifting their attention to strategic defence.
The Vuhlehirsk coal-fired facility, Ukraine’s second-largest power plant, was reportedly taken by Russian forces in the east. It was referred to as a “small, tactical edge” by Mr. Arestovych.