Ukraine attacks Russian positions amid offensive to reclaim south
Lviv, Jul 25 (EFE).- Ukraine has bombed Russian positions in the southern Kherson region where Kyiv’s army has launched a counteroffensive to recapture territory seized by Moscow’s troops, the war-torn country’s Operational Command South reported Monday.
Natalia Humeniuk, the head of the press center of defense forces of the south of Ukraine, said during a televised speech that Ukrainian forces had destroyed a Russian observation post, where the invading troops were planning to launch an operation in the direction of Kherson.
“We are not standing still, we are making progress,” she said.
Ukrainian aircraft struck five targets in the cities of Beryslav and Kherson, the Operational Command South said in a report, according to Ukrinform news agency.
“A pair of attack aircraft and front-line bombers attacked three enemy strongholds in Beryslav district, and a pair of Mi-8 and Mi-24 targeted two enemy strongholds in Kherson district,” the report says.
It added that missile and artillery units carried out 190 fire missions and destroyed five Russian tanks, three armored personnel vehicles, and nine vehicles, among others.
Russian forces tried to launch counterattacks in Beryslav and Kherson districts to regain control of the position they lost, but in vain, according to the report.
Humeniuk also said the Russian counteroffensive attempt toward Beryslav had failed
“Our positions remained consolidated, strong. We continued our work and they withdrew to their positions, to the extreme line of defense that they built and reinforced with concrete structures there,” she stressed.
On July 23, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his country’s forces were advancing step by step in the south.
The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, on Monday was quoted by Ukrinform as saying that Russian attempts to launch attacks in the Donetsk region were unsuccessful.
“The occupiers do not abandon their intentions to develop an attack on the large cities of Donetsk region, but for now they stand still in our region. They die without ever seeing the neighboring region. They attack from several directions at once, trying to disperse our defense. It doesn’t work,” Haidai said.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some 39,700 Russian soldiers have died, according to figures issued by the Ukrainian army that have not been independently verified.EFE
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