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| Reuters |
Striking deep behind enemy lines, the Ukrainians are depleting Russia’s combat potential, slowing its advance in the east and creating new vulnerabilities in the south.
From spring into summer, the Ukrainian military was pummeled by Russian artillery in eastern Ukraine, steadily losing ground and as many as 200 soldiers a day in a mismatched, head-to-head contest. But in recent weeks, Ukraine has shifted its strategy with the help of new weaponry and succeeded, at least for now, in slowing Russia’s advances.
Supplied with a growing arsenal of long-range Western weapons and aided by local fighters known as partisans, Ukraine has been able to hit Russian forces deep behind enemy lines, disrupting critical supply lines and, increasingly, striking targets that are key to Moscow’s combat potential.
The new weapons have also forced Russia to recalibrate on the battlefield, creating some breathing room for the Ukrainians to make more strategic decisions.
One blow to the Russians this week was a series of explosions at an air base on the occupied Crimean Peninsula that destroyed at least eight warplanes, and that a Ukrainian official said had resulted from a strike carried out by special forces troops aided by local partisan fighters.
The approach has been particularly well suited to the Kherson region in the south, where for weeks Ukrainian officials have been engaged in the opening salvos of a counteroffensive. The city of Kherson in particular, dependent for supplies on just four bridges spanning the Dnipro River, is considered more vulnerable than other occupied cities. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Vadim Belikov/Associated Press |
Kyiv is urging residents of the Russian-occupied Kherson region to leave before a winter exacerbated by shortages sets in and ahead of a promised Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the strategic area.
“Evacuate. A harsh winter is coming. We need to help you, to save you from the cold and the enemy,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Sunday in Zaporizhzhia, a city near the front line.
The appeal from Ms. Vereshchuk, who said around 50% of the Kherson region’s population had already heeded the call, is the latest official plea to Ukrainians to leave the territory. Kyiv says Moscow is preparing to annex parts of the region after a series of referendums it says are planned for the coming weeks, bringing extra urgency to the battle for control of the south.
Evacuation from the territory would make it easier for Ukrainian forces to operate there without inflicting civilian casualties. Yaroslav Yanushevych, the Ukrainian head of the Kherson region, said a successful liberation would be much harder if thousands rem
“People are waiting for de-occupation. That’s precisely why we’re asking people to leave. There cannot be military operations in places where there are people,” he said.
The calls come as Ukraine continues to tout its major counteroffensive to retake the city of Kherson and other occupied areas, a campaign that has been bolstered by the delivery of powerful Western weapons but has yet to yield any results in terms of significant territory regained. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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