- Ukraine is trying to squeeze Russia from the south of the country
- Try to disrupt supply lines, bomb bridges
- Target Russian forces with airstrikes
- Russia says it is shelling Ukrainian infantry
- Kyiv says Russia is redeploying forces to the south
Kyiv, July 28 (Reuters) – Ukraine stepped up its push to retake its Russian-held south by trying to bombard and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas, but said on Thursday it saw evidence Moscow was redeploying its forces . to defend the territory.
In messages to mark the annual Ukrainian Statehood Day, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy congratulated Ukrainians and appeared defiant.
“We will not give up. We will not be intimidated. Ukraine is an independent, free, indivisible state. And it will always be like this,” he wrote on Telegram.
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After Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement last week to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said he expected the first shipment of grain from of a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place on Friday.
He said “crucial” details were still being worked out for the ships’ safe passage, but added that “the devil was in the details”. Read more
Allowing the safe passage of grain shipments from Ukrainian ports should ease shortages that have left tens of millions of people around the world facing rising food prices and hunger.
Ukraine said on Thursday that its jets had hit five Russian strongholds around the city of Kherson and another nearby city.
The southern Kherson region, which borders Russia’s annexed Crimea, fell to Russian forces shortly after they began what Moscow calls a “special military operation” on February 24. Ukraine describes Russia’s actions as an imperial-style war of conquest.
British military intelligence, which helps Ukraine, said it was likely that Ukrainian forces had also established a bridgehead south of a river that runs along the region’s northern border. “Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Kherson is gaining momentum,” he said in a statement.
Ukraine says it has retaken some small settlements in the far north of the region in recent weeks as it tries to push back Russian forces, a possible prelude to what Kyiv has described as a major counteroffensive to retake the south.
Russia said on Thursday it was not uncomfortable, with the defense ministry saying its jets had attacked a Ukrainian infantry brigade in the far north of the Kherson region, killing more than 130 of its soldiers in recent 24 hours
Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-appointed civil-military administration that runs the Kherson region, has also rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation on the battlefield.
“Massive Russian Redeployment”
Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to severely damage three bridges over the Dnipro River in recent weeks, making it difficult for Russia to supply its forces on the western bank.
A rescue worker walks through rubble at a residential area site destroyed by a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the city of Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on July 27, 2022. Service press release of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine /Handout via REUTERS
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British intelligence said the strategy was beginning to isolate Russian forces in the Kherson region.
“Russia’s 49th Army, stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, now appears very vulnerable,” he said in an intelligence bulletin.
The city of Kherson was practically cut off from the other territories occupied by Russia.
“His loss seriously undermines Russia’s attempts to paint the occupation as a success,” British intelligence said.
A Ukrainian strike on Wednesday at the Antonivskyi Bridge, the only section serving the city of Kherson, caused its closure to traffic. That forced Russia to open a ferry service, the route of which it said would constantly change for security reasons.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted that Russia was concentrating “the maximum number of troops” in the direction of the Kherson region, but gave no details.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelenski, said Russia was conducting a “massive redeployment” of forces from east to south in what was a strategic shift from attack to defense. Read more
RIA reported on Thursday that Russian security services had uncovered a group of Ukrainian agents in Kherson who had been paid to transmit map coordinates to Russian forces in Ukraine for artillery targeting.
Oleksiy Gromov, a senior member of the General Staff of the Ukrainian army, told a news conference that the Antonivskyi Bridge was of great importance to Russia’s defensive effort and to the offensive attempt of ‘Ukraine.
“We have repeatedly hit the Antonivskyi Bridge… There is significant damage to the bridge structures,” Gromov said.
Russia continues to carry out its own daily attacks against targets throughout Ukraine.
Five people were killed and 25 injured in a Russian missile attack on a flight school in the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi on Thursday, the regional governor said. Read more
Fierce fighting is also taking place in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is trying to take control of the entire industrialized Donbas region.
Ukraine confirmed late Wednesday that Russian forces had captured the Soviet-era Vuhlehirsk coal-fired power plant, Ukraine’s second largest, in what was Moscow’s first significant gain in the Donbas in more than three weeks Kyiv downplayed the setback. Read more
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Reuters bureau reports; Written by Andrew Osborn and Catherine Evans; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Hugh Lawson
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.