Ukraine’s counter-offensive in southern Kherson region entered its sixth day on Monday as efforts to isolate and cut off Russian forces intensified as Russia continued its frontline disinformation campaign.

In its assessment of the development of hostilities in Ukraine, which it made public on Saturday morning, the British Ministry of Defense notes that one of the characteristic elements of the offensive launched by the Ukrainians at the beginning of the week in Kherson is an offensive on a wide front west of the Dnipro River, at 3 the main directions of attack.

It will be recalled that the President of Ukraine confirmed on Tuesday that “intense fighting” is taking place “almost throughout” the Kherson region after the Kyiv press announced the start of the long-awaited offensive in the south of the country a day ago.

The British say the operation has limited immediate objectives, but Ukrainian forces likely caught Russian defenders off guard at the tactical level, taking advantage of poorly organized logistics chains and deficiencies in the management and leadership of the forces sent by Vladimir Putin to Ukraine on February 24.

“As hostilities also continue in Donbass and in the Kharkiv direction, a key decision for Russian commands in the coming days will be where to direct the operational reserves they can create,” the London-based Ministry of Defense said.

One of the most famous Ukrainian military journalists, Ilya Ponomarenko, for his part, believes that the military, participating in the counteroffensive in Kherson region, will try to achieve goals at the tactical level: to keep Russian forces in continuous combat and exhaust them, while isolating them. and cutting supply chains across the river.

Ukrainians are trying to isolate Russian troops from Kherson

On Friday, Ukrainian armed forces bombed and destroyed an ammunition depot in Melitopol, a town 231 kilometers east of the capital of Kherson region, most likely to prevent Russian troops from resupplying with ammunition and equipment from neighboring Zaporizhzhia region after they constantly bombarded bridges in the south of Kherson.

Also on Friday, Ukrainian forces struck again near the strategic Antoniv bridge over the Dnipro River, vital for the replenishment of Russian troops in the area. As recently as July 20, the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain estimated that its decommissioning would block the way out of the Russian forces stationed here.

In early August, the Russians built a floating pontoon bridge near the Antovsky Bridge after it was closed in late July due to repeated Ukrainian attacks with US-sourced HIMARS systems.

On August 8, the occupying authorities installed by the Russians complained to the Moscow press that they wanted to open the largest bridge across the Dnipro, but the Ukrainians attacked it again just as it was being repaired.

On Monday, the first day of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainians struck the Antonivskyi Bridge again, and published photos on social networks showing how it was engulfed in smoke.

Interestingly, at night, Ukrainians attacked a new Russian ammunition depot in the Zaporizhzhia region, this time in the city of Tokmak.

This city in southeastern Ukraine is even further from Kherson Oblast than Melitopol, which indicates that Ukrainian forces are conducting a systematic operation to block not only Russian logistics channels in Kherson, but also supply lines in the neighboring oblast.

Ukrainian forces also sent marines into battle

A video published on social networks by the Ukrainian armed forces shows the destruction of a Russian tank by marines sent by Kiev to participate in the offensive in the south of the country, the tank was shot down near the village of Novogrodnieve in the Kherson region with 122 millimeters. self-propelled howitzers.

It appears to be one of the few times Ukrainian marines have been seen in action since their staunch defense of the port city of Mariupol, which was finally captured by the Russians on May 17 after months of desperate battles by the city’s defenders against invading forces.

The Southern Operational Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Saturday morning that during battles and shelling in Kherson, they destroyed 14 T-72 and T-62 tanks and captured two more. According to the Ukrainian military, who were in charge of this theater of operations, Kyiv forces also destroyed 35 Russian armored vehicles and two Uragan multiple rocket launchers.

However, it should be remembered that the information war is being waged on both sides, and these figures cannot be independently confirmed.

A video posted on social media on Saturday shows Ukrainian artillery shelling the towns of Lyubimivka and Khreshchenivka, destroying at least one artillery installation and a BTR-80 armored personnel carrier.

Another recording recorded strikes by Ukrainians in the town of Kozatske, on the banks of the Dnieper.

The Russians continue their disinformation campaign regarding the hostilities in southern Ukraine

In its assessment of the war in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War notes that Russia and pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk are strengthening their accounts of the failure of the Kherson counteroffensive.

ISW recalls that on Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave an atypical speech in which he spoke about the development of the situation at the front, saying that the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky was planning a counteroffensive in Kherson and attacks in other regions to show Western allies that the Armed forces of Ukraine are capable of large-scale offensive actions.

The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Oblast, Vitaly Keselyov, in turn, stated that the introduction of Ukrainian troops into this counteroffensive was “collective suicide” and they suffered heavy losses.

On September 1, the President of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko, also stated that internal disagreements in the Ukrainian armed forces will soon lead to an end to the war.

These statements were also picked up by the Russian state media, which almost completely silences the Ukrainian military actions and counteroffensive in Kherson.

ISW reminds us that complex counter-offensives cannot be won overnight or in a few days, and the Russians’ portrayal of the situation as an immediate failure of Ukrainian forces due to their failure to seize significant territory quickly is a deliberate misinformation about the situation.

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