Ukraine said on Sunday that it had pushed back the Russian army “from 3 to 8 km” deep on the left bank of the Dnieper occupied by Moscow’s army.
This is the first numerical estimate of the advance of kyiv’s troops in this area after months of disappointing counter-offensive.
“Preliminary figures vary from 3 to 8 km, depending on the specificities, geography and topography of the left bank“, indicated an army spokesperson, Natalia Goumeniouk, on Ukrainian television.
If this advance is confirmed, it would be the biggest push by the Ukrainian army against the Russians in several months.
Natalia Goumeniouk did not, however, indicate whether Ukrainian forces completely controlled this area of the Kherson region (south) or whether the Russian army had withdrawn in the face of attacks by Kiev troops.
“The enemy continues its artillery fire on the right bank“, she detailed, estimating the number of Russian soldiers present in this area at “several tens of thousands”.
AFP was unable to confirm all of these assertions.
Launched last June, the long-awaited counter-offensive by Kiev and its Western allies failed, allowing the Ukrainian army to retake only a handful of villages in the south and east.
But on Friday, kyiv said it had taken positions on the left bank of the Dnieper, while reporting “violent fighting” and “strong resistance” from Russia.
Moscow, for its part, has not mentioned the Ukrainian bridgeheads until now.
Taking positions in depth on the left bank of the Dnieper could allow a larger assault in the southd. But for this, Ukraine must succeed in deploying its army in this difficult to access, sandy and marshy area.
In this area of southern Ukraine, The Dnieper has served as a front line since the Russian army withdrew from the city of Kherson in November 2022.
Moscow and kyiv targeted by drone attacks in the night, no victims
“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a drone against facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation has been foiled“, welcomed the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release.
Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow were particularly frequent in the spring, ahead of and at the start of Kyiv’s counter-offensive that began in June, but they have become very rare in recent weeks.
According to the account given by the Russian ministry, the drone in question “was destroyed by air defense equipment (…) above the territory of the urban district of Bogorodskii, in the Moscow region”.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, later indicated on Telegram that this foiled attack “caused no damage or victims”. “Emergency services are working on the site” where “the debris” of the machine fell, he said.
For its part, Kyiv was the target, for the second night in a row, of a barrage of explosive drones launched by the Russian armyof Iranian manufacture “Shahed”, according to local authorities, who reported an “intensification” of attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
“For the second day in a row, the enemy attacks the capital with drones“, lamented the head of the military administration of the Ukrainian capital, Sergiï Popko, on Telegram.
According to his explanations, the Russian drones “were launched in several groups and attacked Kyiv in waves, from different directions.”
ADVERTISEMENTIn total, “15 of the 20 enemy drones were destroyed,” the Ukrainian general staff said in a separate statement.
Here again, “no casualties or critical destruction were recorded“, according to Mr. Popko.
On Saturday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected Russia to increase its attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, with the aim of paralyzing the country’s heating and electricity supplies in the middle of winter.
“The closer we get to winter, the more the Russians will try to make their strikes more powerful“, he warned in his daily address, calling on his army to be “100% effective, despite all the difficulties, despite fatigue”.
