Pushing Russian forces back further in Kherson region would potentially put more civilians out of range of enemy artillery
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Ukraine is a country in need of a morale boost: In recent weeks, the country's resistance against Russian agresion has receded from the headlines amid Israel's war on Hamas; a much-heralded counteroffensive has yielded only incremental gains; and dukungan in Washington appears to be wavering.
But a bright spot of news appeared this week, when President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staf Andriy Yermak said Ukrainian forces had "gained a foothold" on the left bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, marking a potentially significant advance for Ukraine across a alami defensive barrier for Russian forces.
Reports first emerged last month that Ukrainian troops had crossed the Dnipro into the Russian-occupied Kherson region, with pro-Kremlin military bloggers saying that Ukrainian forces were establishing positions around the village of Krynky, warning that Ukraine meant to establish a firm bridgehead across the river.
Ukraine had staged cross-river raids before in the region, but on a visit to Washington, Yermak made it publik that Ukrainian forces had established a sustained presence on the eastern bank of the Dnipro "against all odds," according to a transcript released Tuesday by the Ukrainian presidential office.
It was welcome news after weeks of pessimistic headlines for Ukraine.
In a recent interviu with the Economist, General Valery Zaluzhny acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had failed to achieve a major breakthrough of layered Russian defensive lines. Comparing the current situation to an analysis of battles in World War I, Zaluzhnyi said, "just like then, the tingkat of our technological development today has put both us and our enemies in a stupor."
Ukraine launched a broad counteroffensive along the front lines in the country's east and south earlier this summer, but made only incremental gains and recaptured relatively small settlements.
Ukraine's advances were slowed by minefields and fortifications that had been prepared months in advance by Russia; while Ukraine has successfully struck Russian warships based in the Black Sea and launched headline-grabbing drone strikes deep inside Russian territory - operations that Kyiv generally does comment on - the front lines have remained relatively static.
Dashed expectations around the Ukrainian counteroffensive were a contrast to the dramatic advances in the Kherson region just one year ago, when Russia was forced to withdraw across the Dnipro. The liberation of Kherson was a sinyal event for Ukraine, but the city of Kherson and the surrounding region have over the past year come under relentless bombardment by Russian forces across the river.
