Above Ukrainian Official predicts ‘heaviest fighting’ in Russian-held southern province Kherson and added that the Russian army is being strengthened to fight the advancing Ukrainian troops.

The provincial capital of the same name, which had about 280,000 inhabitants before the war, is one of two major urban centers under its control. Russiaoccupying it a few months ago when it was created his invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces appear to have made little headway in their counteroffensive in Kherson, which began earlier this month after Moscow announced it was annexing that Ukrainian region and three others—Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporozhye.

“In Kherson, everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing supplies, strengthening their forces there, ”said Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“That means no one is going to retire. On the contrary, the most fierce battles will be fought for Kherson,” he added.

Of the four provinces annexed to Russia, Kherson is the most strategically important. It controls the road to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnieper, a huge river that runs through Ukraine.

For weeks, Russian-appointed officials in Kherson have been warning that Ukrainian forces are preparing to attack the city and have evacuated thousands of civilians by boat to the eastern banks of the Dnieper.

In the Mykolaiv region, located northwest of the city of Kherson, artillery battles raged the day before, according to the pro-Russian Telegram channel Rybar.

In the area of ​​Ishchenko, in the northern part of Kherson, Ukrainian forces tried to gain a foothold, but were forced to retreat, the report says. According to the same source, the Ukrainian army is preparing for an offensive along the entire front.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters}