On Thursday (local time), it appeared that Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were getting ready for a significant conflict over the strategically important southern industrial port city of Kherson.
As Moscow continued to launch missile and drone attacks on the invaded country’s vital infrastructure, fighting and evacuations were reported in the Kherson region.
In an effort to assert Russian control over the territories it has occupied, Putin imposed martial law on Wednesday in the provinces of Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia.
The unsettled status of the illegally absorbed territory was especially visible in the Kherson region’s capital, where Russian military officials have replaced Kremlin-installed civilian leaders to defend against a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The largest city that Russia still controls is Kherson, which had a prewar population of roughly 284,000. Kherson was one of the first cities that Russia conquered when it invaded Ukraine. Both sides have set their sights on it because of its important industries and significant river port. For months, there have been rumours of sabotage and murders of Russian-installed officials in Kherson, in what seemed to be one of the most active Ukrainian resistance operations in occupied area.
Residents have been ordered to leave so that the military may erect fortifications and for their own protection, according to officials deployed by Russia.
On Thursday, the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Ukrainian forces had launched 15 assaults against Russian military sites.
Vladimir Leontyev, a Russian officer stationed in the area, claimed on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had fired five missiles against the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power facility, which is located approximately 70 kilometres from Kherson city.
A crucial canal that supplies water to annexed Crimea will be shut off, he claimed on Russian television.
In response, Zelensky claimed that the Russians had mined the dam and power plant with the intention of blowing them up in what he called an act of terrorism to release 18 million cubic metres of water that would flood Kherson and a number of other areas that are home to hundreds of thousands of people. He informed the European Council that Ukraine would thereafter bear the blame.
None of the claims could be independently verified.
This week, the threat presented by Ukraine’s counteroffensive on Kherson was acknowledged by Russia’s new military commander in Ukraine. Britain’s Defense Ministry said that Russian authorities are seriously considering a major withdrawal of their forces from the area west of the Dnieper River..
forces from Russia and Ukraine get ready for a significant battle in Kherson
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