Ukrainian counteroffensive: the Ukrainians were asked to be patient, while Russia is lying and regrouping

Author

Olexandr Zakharov

On Tuesday, Ukraine resumed its counteroffensive in the south of the country: explosions were heard in Kherson the whole night, and in Nova Kakhovka, a number of buildings were destroyed.

For a few weeks, Ukraine has been focusing on cutting the Russian supply lines, and now, after the bridges and ammunition depots in the Kherson Region had been destroyed, the Ukrainians have launched an assault, The Wall Street Journal writes.

The Ukrainians were asked to stay patient

According to the WSJ, the AFU on the eastern bank of the Inhulets are pushing toward the Dnipro north-east of Kherson in an attempt to divide Russian forces sandwiched between the two rivers.

"This is a planned slow operation to grind the enemy, saving the lives of our military and civilians," Oleksii Arestovych, an adviser to the President’s Office, wrote. "Of course, many would like a large-scale offensive with news about our military’s capture of one settlement an hour. But we don’t fight like that. And our means are limited."

The Ukrainian military said that they had hit 13 Russian command centers across the Kherson Region, as well as a Russian crossing of the Dnipro near the village of Lvove.

Military officials advised residents of the region to stock up on food, water and medicine to prepare for the continuing assault.

Russia is denying the counteroffensive in any possible way

Russian officials installed in occupied southern Ukraine initially denied there was any Ukrainian offensive, but on Monday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks had failed and repeated the claim on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, predictably said that the "special military operation" was progressing according to plan.

At the same time, reports from Russian military bloggers suggested that Ukraine made breakthroughs to the northeast of the city of Kherson. Russian state news agencies wrote that air-defense systems in Kherson were repelling Ukrainian missile attacks.

There were also conflicting reports on the evacuation of residents of Nova Kakhovka, and the former "defense minister of the DPR", Igor Girkin, wrote that around 5 a.m. on Tuesday Ukrainians launched powerful missile attacks on the bridge and crossings in Kherson.

It is also suspected that Kyrylo Stremousov, one of the Kherson collaborationists, fled to the Russian city of Voronezh, as the new videos on his Telegram channel suggest.

Russia was forced to reorganize its troops

The British Ministry of Defense said, for its part, that the Ukrainian offensive in the south had forced Moscow to reorganize its troops, including redeploying forces who had been in the eastern Donbas area.

According to the Ministry, most of the units around Kherson are likely undermanned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines by ferry and pontoon bridges across the Dnipro.

In his nightly address on August 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wouldn’t give any information on the military situation.

"The occupiers should know: We will drive them to the border," the President emphasized.

Zelenskyy’s address on the counteroffensive in the south [video]

The Ukrainians are asked to refrain from writing information about the counteroffensive, and especially about the advance of Ukrainian troops, if it wasn’t shared by the General Staff of the AFU.