Kyiv ‘will recapture Kherson’
The Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson will be recaptured by September, a Ukrainian official said yesterday.
Sergey Khlan, an aide to the ousted Ukrainian head of the Kherson region, said Ukrainian forces backed up by sophisticated Western weapons, including longrange Himars, were defeating Russia’s army around the region.
‘‘Kherson region will definitely be liberated by September,’’ Khlan said in an interview with Ukrainian television.
‘‘We can say that a turning point has occurred on the battlefield.’’
He added: ‘‘We see that our armed forces are advancing openly. We can say that we are switching from defensive to counter-offensive actions.’’
The arrival of Himars in Ukraine in June changed the momentum of the war because the country is now able to hit Russian supply lines, command centres and other infrastructure, causing widespread damage.
The targets had previously been too far behind the front line to strike.
Not only have the Himars stalled the Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas but they have also hit bridges over the Dnipro River and its tributary, the Inhulets River, that form important supply lines to Kherson city.
Analysts said that an artillery attack over the weekend on the bridge over the Inhulets River bore all the signs of a highly accurate Himar.
‘‘Footage shows six equidistant points of impact on the bridge,’’ said the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank.
Unverified reports from Ukrainian officials said that its military had encircled hundreds of Russian soldiers.
British military intelligence has said that Russia was shelling Ukrainian positions around the Inhulets River rather than counterattacking.
Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, said the Ukrainian army may be laying a trap for the Russians, drawing them into the area around Kherson with strikes on infrastructure before unleashing a massive counterattack.
‘‘They’ve made the Russians commit to a killing ground,’’ he said.
‘‘A few more weeks of this, and you can see Ukraine taking more risks. Strategy might be to bleed them in Donbas, bleed them in Kherson, defeat them in Kherson.’’
Russia captured the Kherson region in the first few days of the war without a fight.
The region’s main city, also called Kherson, was captured on March 3.
It was the first major city to fall following the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine in late February.
The region, important for agriculture, lies next to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.