UKRAINE/RUSSIA: Ukrainian troops have penetrated Russian strongholds on the Dnipro River, north-east of Kherson, a strategically Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, which was one of the four regions featured in Putin’s referendum agenda.
The advance was reported by the Russian military and Russian-stationed military personnel in the region. There is “heavy Russian defensive fire,” they reported.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “There are new liberated settlements in several regions.”
In the east, Ukrainian forces targeted the Russian-held Luhansk region, also part of the referendums.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “There are new liberated settlements in several regions.”
On Saturday, Zelensky’s forces won a major victory when they recaptured the important hub town of Lyman in the east, near the Luhansk region border.
Video footage showed blue and yellow colours flying in the region once again, after the expulsion of the Russian military, who had reportedly turned the town into a logistical base.
Russia’s proxy forces in Luhansk said Ukrainian troops had pushed a few kilometres into the Luhansk region. Reports suggest that the Ukrainians are advancing toward the Russian-occupied towns of Kremenna and Svatove in Luhansk.
In the south, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in Kherson, said Ukrainian forces had broken through near Dudchany, a town on the Dnipro River about 30 km (20 miles) south of the previous front line.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “There are new liberated settlements in several regions.”
A Russian defence ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said “numerically superior” Ukrainian tanks had “driven a deep wedge” south of Zolota Balka, a village that marked the previous front line on the Dnipro. He claimed the Russians had killed about 130 Ukrainian troops in that fighting.
According to Saldo’s reports, two Ukrainian battalions are attempting to reach Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, about 70 km (44 miles) east of Kherson. The power station is located in the port city of Nova Kakhovka.
The Ukrainian advance is targeting the destruction of supply lines for as many as 25,000 Russian troops stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro. Moreover, Ukraine has won big on the Kherson front by heavily damaging the Antonivsky Bridge, on the north-western side, a crucial link for Russian forces in the city.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has vowed to retake all the territory annexed by Russia, including Crimea, seized by Russian troops in 2014.
The Russian defence ministry has notified that reservists drafted into the military as part of Putin’s ‘partial mobilization’ scheme have been undergoing intense combat training in the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
In other developments, the United States will soon announce that it will send four more M142 HIMARS in a new $625 million weapons package to Ukraine, as per the reports.
Meanwhile, Tesla owner and business tycoon Elon Musk tweeted a rather controversial message on October 3, saying, “Let’s try this then: The will of the people who live in the Donbas and Crimea should decide whether they’re part of Russia or Ukraine.”
As a retaliatory response, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausda, replied to this tweet and wrote, “Dear @elonmusk, when someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn’t make them the legal owner of the car or of the wheels. even though they both claim they voted in favour of it. Just saying.”
Also Read: Ukraine War: India Refuses to Vote in Favour of Russia’s ‘Illegal Referendum’
