By Oyintari Ben
As Kyiv’s soldiers move closer to the southern city of Kherson and build on successes in the east, they have retaken more ground in areas Russia illegally seized.
The move was acknowledged by Russian-installed officials in Kherson, who also noted that Moscow’s forces were digging in.
Additionally, Ukrainian forces advanced in the direction of eastern Luhansk, which Russia controls.
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, “there are new liberated settlements in several regions.”
President Zelensky stated during his evening speech that “fierce fighting continues in numerous regions,” but he did not provide further information. As Ukraine’s counterattacks have been strictly guarded, reporters have mostly been kept from the front lines.
However, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed ruler of Kherson, acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had crossed the front line in the vicinity of Dudchany, a town on the Dnipro river some 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the previous front line. The Russians refer to the river as the Dnieper.
There are settlements that the Ukrainian military has taken control of, according to Mr Saldo. Russian news sources claim that the Ukrainians have already seized Dudchany.
Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry, claimed that “numerically superior” Ukrainian tanks had “carved a deep wedge” south of Zolota Balka. This settlement served as the former Dnipro front line. He asserted that the Russians had killed roughly 130 Ukrainian soldiers in such clashes.
Two Ukrainian battalions allegedly attempted to travel 70 km (44 miles) east of Kherson to the Kakhovka hydroelectric facility. The power plant is located in Nova Kakhovka, a port city.
On the west bank of the Dnipro, the Ukrainian offensive is aiming for the supply routes for as many as 25,000 Russian troops.
Meanwhile, in the east, Kyiv’s forces had kept up an advance that had made progress into Luhansk, a region that was previously nearly entirely under Russian control before Moscow seized it last week.
Ukrainian forces regained Lyman on Saturday in the east, close to the border with the Luhansk area. Lyman had been transformed into a base for Russian military logistics.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, came under fire online on Monday after he revealed that Russia was still deciding which places it had “annexed,” implying that Moscow is unsure of the location of its boundaries.
Kyiv has threatened to recover all of the lands that Russia occupied, including the Crimea that Russian forces invaded in 2014.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, reservists who were mobilized by Mr Putin last month are receiving rigorous combat training in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under Russian control. Although Mr Putin did not specify a cap, the Kremlin intends to activate approximately 300,000 reserve personnel.
