Conflicts & War

Ukraine military says counter-offensive launched in south

Lviv/Moscow, Aug 29 (EFE).- Ukraine’s armed forces on Monday launched a counter-offensive in the country’s south and claimed to have broken the Russians’ first line of defense in Kherson.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched offensive actions on many fronts in Ukraine’s South,” said Nataliya Humenyuk, the head of the joint press center in southern Ukraine, as cited by the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet.

“The 109th regiment of the so-called ‘DPR’ (Donetsk People’s Republic) has withdrawn from its positions in Kherson Oblast, and the Russian elite Airborne, who supported them, fled the battlefield,” the press spokeswoman claimed.

Serhiy Khlan, deputy of the Kherson Regional Council, said that the Russians’ first line of defense in the Kherson Oblast had been breached, Ukrinform news reported.

The claims to Ukrainian press come after media rumors that Ukraine was planning a counter-offensive to seize the city of Kherson from Russia’s invading troops and their separatist allies.

Meanwhile, the Russian administration in occupied Nova Kakhovka, in Kherson, ordered Monday the evacuation of inhabitants there due to the increasing number of Ukrainian missile attacks.

“Evacuation from workplaces has been announced, people are leaving for shelters,” Vladimir Leontyev, head of the regional military-civilian administration, said, according to local media.

Leontyev added that the air raid sirens have not stopped ringing.

Kherson, located to the north of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and subsequently used as a launching pad in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, fell under Russian control in early March.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up its tactical strikes in southern Ukraine, including against the Antonivskyi bridge across the Dnieper. EFE

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