Attacks in southern Ukraine put pressure on Russian units
KYIV, Ukraine — The pressure on Russian forces in southern Ukraine deepened over the weekend as Ukrainian forces conducted strikes on Russian military strongholds, targeted sites used by local officials loyal to the Kremlin and continued to hit the supply lines for thousands of Russian soldiers on the western bank of the Dnieper River.
A missile strike in the Russian-controlled southern Ukrainian city of Kherson leveled a cotton mill that was used as a Russian base, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, after taking credit for an attack on a courthouse downtown that served as a headquarters for the Kremlin-backed military administration.
Another challenge to Russia’s claim that it has full control of the security situation in the city came late Saturday, when a firefight broke out in the streets of the city and continued overnight, according to video released by Russian military bloggers.
Kherson remains the only regional capital in Ukraine captured by Moscow since the invasion.
It was unclear who was involved in the fighting. Local Russian authorities spoke of a raid targeting Ukrainian guerrilla fighters. The Ukrainian military’s southern command Sunday night accused the Russians in Kherson city of staging the street fights in order to be able to claim that Ukrainian forces were endangering civilians.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that the firefight was an internal struggle between Russians looking to “divide the loot” before they “flee.”
Ukraine has been pushing a counteroffensive in the south for weeks, trying to wear down Russian fighters and force their surrender or retreat. But unlike in the northeast, where the Russian lines were thinly spread and quickly overwhelmed by Ukraine’s lightning assault, Russian forces in the south have spent weeks preparing for an expected Ukrainian advance and have fortified their positions.
Despite the increasing pressure, there was no indication of any mass Russian withdrawal, and Russian forces have continued to assault Ukrainian positions and pound Ukrainian towns and villages.
The city of Kherson and the surrounding region are the only land held by Russia west of the Dnieper. Ukraine has been blowing up Russian ammunition dumps and command posts and hitting river crossings and supply lines with precision missile strikes, seeking to isolate the estimated 25,000 Russians on the Dnieper’s west bank.
The Ukrainian military intelligence agency said that four explosions that destroyed the mill Saturday were the result of the “effective action on the part of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.”
Serhiy Khlan, a regional legislator, said Ukrainian forces were also responsible for the strike on the courthouse, which he said took place Friday as Kremlin-approved local leaders were meeting.