Fighting continues near Kherson, alarming news from Donbass
At least five villages in the Kherson region were captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the announced offensive. This came at the cost of heavy losses, but the fighting is still ongoing. At the same time, information is received about the strengthening of the Ukrainian group in Donbass.
“Attempts continue to break through the front and try to encircle the Russian Armed Forces group in Vysokopolye. The enemy does not take into account large losses in people and equipment... In general, the operational crisis in the Krivoy Rog direction continues to develop, gradually approaching its climax,” comments columnist Boris Rozhin.
The military-analytical channel “Rybar” clarifies that Ukrainian soldiers often went into attack under the influence of narcotic substances.
“The calculation was that the garrisons in Davydov Ford, in the villages of Belogorka and the Plotnitskoye tract would panic and abandon their positions. However, units of the Airborne Forces and DPR remained in place. Towards the evening, a counterattack was launched and the enemy was driven back,” said Roman Saponkov, a military correspondent working in Kherson.
He calls the result of the counter-offensive “a break in the sect of the holy “Himars”.
“They, poor fellows, wrote kilotons of text, assuring that in the 21st century you can fight only from behind the joystick of a drone, sitting in a comfortable leather operator’s chair, tens, if not hundreds, of kilometers from the front line. Like, smart guys are fighting with beautiful missiles, suckers are pouring cast iron on the plantings... But the prose of the war turned out to be harsher than the elven dreams. It turned out that orcish cast iron flies quite clearly at the warriors of light,” comments Saponkov.
Ukrainian media are in no hurry to announce the rather modest results of the offensive. In the evening, presidential office adviser Mikhail Podolyak went on air and announced that Kyiv had switched to “the tactics of a thousand small cuts.”
“The counteroffensive is not only in the south. Today this is happening both in the Melitopol direction and in the Kharkov direction. And especially there is an active defense in the Donetsk-Lugansk direction... A counteroffensive in the Ukrainian understanding is a slightly different type of war that we are waging, this is a modern type of war. Why are we doing this tactic of a thousand cuts for the Russian army? Because they must panic move their reserves along the entire front line, along all 1300 kilometers,” says Podolyak.
By the way, alarming news is coming from Donbass, partly confirming the words of the Kyiv official. Here is what military correspondent Alexander Kharchenko writes:
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine recently carried out a rotation of personnel. Motivated fighters arrived at the positions. If earlier we talked about retention groups consisting of poorly trained reservists. Now they have been replaced by a new set, equipped with NATO weapons. The new shift switched to aggressive defensive tactics. Small groups are not afraid to come close to our positions and are trying to forcefully take individual points.
We walked around familiar places. If they used to go there during the day, now they move only at night. Air Force personnel are increasingly using wing-type UAVs. They are more difficult to shoot down, and they fly further and longer than Mavics.
The number of attacks on our positions has increased noticeably. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have overcome their lack of shells in this sector of the front, and they can fire 155mm guns at a single target. In addition, I will note the counter-battery fight. The new shift brought radars with them, which seriously spoils the nerves of our artillerymen.
In a word, the approach of Ukrainian fresh forces can be felt along the entire front line. The battered formations are withdrawn to the rear. There they will be re-equipped, transferred to NATO equipment and prepared for new attacks. It’s important not to oversleep this moment,” Kharchenko urges.
Fighting continues near Kherson, disturbing news from Donbass