In the south, Ukraine said its jets struck five Russian strongholds around the city of Kherson and another nearby city, where it is focusing its biggest counteroffensive since Russia’s invasion began on February 24.
The Kherson region, which borders Russia’s annexed Crimea, fell to Russian forces shortly after they launched what Moscow calls “a special military operation.” Ukraine describes Russia’s actions as an imperial-style war of conquest.
Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to severely damage three bridges over the Dnipro River in recent weeks, making it difficult for Russia to supply its forces on the western bank.
Young women walk by burned Russian military vehicles displayed in St. Michael’s Square on July 28 in Kyiv. Credit: Getty
British intelligence said the strategy was beginning to isolate Russian forces in the Kherson region.
“Russia’s 49th Army, stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, now appears very vulnerable,” he said in an intelligence bulletin Thursday.
The city of Kherson was practically cut off from the other territories occupied by Russia.
“His loss seriously undermines Russia’s attempts to paint the occupation as a success,” British intelligence said.
Ukraine says it has retaken some small settlements in the far north of the region in recent weeks as it tries to push back Russian forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its planes had attacked a Ukrainian infantry brigade in the far north of the Kherson region, killing more than 130 of its soldiers in the previous 24 hours.
Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-appointed civil-military administration that runs the Kherson region, has also rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation on the battlefield.
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Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.
RIA reported on Thursday that Russian security services had uncovered a group of Ukrainian agents in Kherson who had been paid to transmit map coordinates to Russian forces in Ukraine for artillery targeting.
Two people in the southern coastal city of Koblevo were blown up by a sea mine while swimming despite the ban, Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaliy Kim told Telegram.
Zelensky instituted Statehood Day to remind Ukrainians of the country’s history as an independent state. The commemoration honors Prince Vladimir, who more than 1,000 years ago made Christianity the official religion of the medieval state of Kievan Rus.
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“You could say that for us, every day is a state day,” the president said in his holiday speech.
“We fight every day so that everyone on the planet can finally understand: We are not a colony, not an enclave, not a protectorate, not a province, not an eyalet, not a crown land, not a part of foreign empires, not a part of a country. , not a federal republic, not an autonomy, not a province, but a free, independent, sovereign, indivisible and independent state,” Zelensky said.
The Kremlin also claims the heritage of Kyivan Rus. In 2016, Putin erected a monument to Prince Vladimir near the Kremlin.