Europe

Ukraine: operation to retake Kherson ‘has begun’ as Russia redeploys troops toward south

Ukraine targets key Russian supply route to city through the Antonivskiy Bridge

Workers stand in a courtyard amongst debris following an attack on a shopping and office complex in central Kharkiv on July 27th, 2022. Photograph: GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
Workers stand in a courtyard amongst debris following an attack on a shopping and office complex in central Kharkiv on July 27th, 2022. Photograph: GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
Thu Jul 28 2022 - 10:11

Ukraine has said its operation to liberate Kherson “has already begun” after striking the key Russian supply route through the Antonivskiy Bridge into the Russian-occupied southern city on Wednesday.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser also said Russian forces are conducting a “massive redeployment” of troops to three southern regions.

Oleksiy Arestovych, confirmed Ukraine’s strategy to isolate Russian forces, maintaining there is a “certain plan” of the armed forces of Ukraine to “isolate [Russia’s] military operations”.

“No matter how much the enemy overtakes forces and resources on the western bank of the Dnieper, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will first leave them without ammunition depots, fuel, communications and command, and then they will clean up the remnants of their forces,” Mr Arestovych said, adding Russian forces had three options: Retreat (if possible), surrender or be destroyed.”

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[ Ukraine prepares to reopen ports and bombs key bridge in occupied south ]

Ukrainian officials confirmed its troops used US-supplied precision rocket launchers to damage the Antonivskiy bridge.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed Ukraine would rebuild the bridge and other crossings in the region.

Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Kherson is now gathering momentum, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. In an intelligence report issued on Thursday.

Ukrainian forces have highly likely established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River, which forms the northern boundary of Russian-occupied Kherson, the report said, adding Ukraine has used its new long-range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges across the Dnieper River that Russia relies upon to supply the areas under its control.

Mr Arestovych said Russian forces are conducting a “massive redeployment” of troops to three southern regions

The Russian redeployment to the south appeared to be a switch to strategic defence from offence, with troops sent to Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, he said.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, earlier tweeted that Russia was concentrating “the maximum number of troops” in the direction of the Kherson but gave no details.

Ukrainian forces in the south said they had killed 66 enemy troops and destroyed three tanks and two arms dumps in the past 24 hours. Russian forces attacked the city of Mykolaiv with multiple rocket launchers, they added.

[ Ukrainian official accuses Russians of abandoning dead soldiers ]

Elsewhere, Russian-backed forces said on Wednesday they had captured intact the Soviet-era coal-fired Vuhlehirsk power plant, Ukraine’s second-biggest power plant, in what was Moscow’s first significant gain in more than three weeks.

Mr Arestovych confirmed the capture of the plant in the eastern Donetsk region but said it was only a “tiny tactical advantage” for Russia.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he planned a phone conversation with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov — the first between the two diplomats since before the start of the war.

The call in the coming days would not be “a negotiation about Ukraine,” Mr Blinken said at a news conference, restating Washington’s position that any talks on ending the war must be between Kyiv and Moscow.

[ Ukrainian teenager in captivity: ‘I held him while he was bleeding. A soldier called a doctor and they took him’ ]

Russia reduced gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in an energy stand-off with the European Union. It has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since invading, but on Friday agreed to allow deliveries through the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosphorus Strait and on to global markets.

The deal was almost immediately thrown into doubt when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukraine's largest port, on Saturday, just 12 hours after the deal was signed.

Before the invasion and subsequent sanctions, Russia and Ukraine accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. — Agencies