Ukraine has launched an offensive in the Kherson area – NRK Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
Offensive is particularly targeting the city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russian forces have succeeded in capturing in Ukraine.
The city was the first to be taken by Russian forces after the invasion in February.
– Ukrainian forces have begun the offensive in the south. The goal is to liberate occupied territories, Natalia Humenyuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Command, told CNN Monday morning.
Announced in July
Reports of an offensive have so far not been independently confirmed.
It has been reported for several weeks that Ukrainian forces have prepared a counter-offensive in the south. This included systematic attacks against bridges and ammunition depots in the area.
Serheij Khlan of the Kherson regional council tells Ukrainian Pryamyi TV that this is the beginning of an operation to recapture the occupied area.
– Today there was a powerful artillery attack on enemy positions throughout the territory of the occupied Kherson region, he says.
– This is an announcement we have been waiting for since the spring, it is the beginning of a counter-offensive by the Kherson region, says Khlan.
Expectations of a Ukrainian offensive have grown slowly but surely since the start of July.
Then Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered the liberation of the occupied territories in the south.
No law with Ukrainian currency
According to the Russian news agency Paw is the statement of the Ukrainian authorities untruths.
– More and more residents of Kherson want to become part of Russia and to be a Russian region, claims Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration in the area, to Tass.
Kherson is located just north of the Crimean peninsula, in the south of the country and on the Dnipro River, which divides the country in two. The city is therefore considered important.
Before the war, approximately 300,000 inhabitants lived in the city. Now it is no longer allowed to use Ukrainian currency – it is Russian rubles that apply, writes Aftenposten.