Ukraine’s long-awaited southern counteroffensive has began, a consultant for the nation’s southern army command stated on Monday, as Kyiv’s forces tried to punch by way of Russian traces across the southern metropolis of Kherson.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, instructed Ukrainian media that the nation’s armed forces “have began offensive actions in numerous instructions,” and particularly towards the southern area of Kherson, which is was occupied by Russian forces early within the conflict.
The town of Kherson holds an important strategic place on the Dnieper River and Black Sea.
In keeping with native reviews, Ukrainian forces launched their counterattack in a single day. Kherson authorities have referred to as on residents to hunt shelter and refill on meals and water.
Humeniuk refused to disclose the targets of the counteroffensive. In an announcement to CNN, she stated particulars can be accessible after the operation is full.
She additionally urged individuals to stay silent on the assault: “Any army operation requires silence. Within the situations of a hybrid conflict, such a response to information from the entrance harms the armed forces.”
Russian information company RIA reported that shelling by Ukrainian forces destroyed a secondary faculty and homes within the metropolis of Beryslav within the Kherson area, and that residents have been searching for shelters in one other metropolis throughout the river.
Whereas the preventing has intensified in current weeks, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has lengthy been anticipated.
It comes as a workforce from the U.N.’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company is heading to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant on Monday. Fierce preventing between Russian and Ukrainian forces within the neighborhood of the nuclear plant have raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
