The port city is disputed again. Ukraine wants to regain Kherson on the offensive
03/26/2022 01:41
The Russian army celebrates its first success by capturing Kherson in southern Ukraine shortly after the start of the war. Now the United States is reporting renewed fighting around the strategically important port city – Ukrainian troops are once again trying to wrest control of the Russians.
According to the US, the Ukrainian army has launched an offensive to recapture the city of Kherson in the south of the country. “The Ukrainians are trying to regain Kherson and we would say that Kherson is now a contested territory again,” a representative of the US Department of Defense told reporters in Washington.
“We cannot confirm exactly who controls Kherson, but the city does not seem to be under Russia’s control as clearly as before,” a ministry official said, asking not to be named.
Kherson, located near the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia, was the first large city in Ukraine to be seized by the Russian army after a three-day siege in early March. About ten days ago, Moscow announced the capture of the entire Kherson district. About a million people live in the Black Sea region. There, many people took to the streets time and time again to protest against the Russian invasion. Recently, demonstrations have been brutally suppressed.
The Russians probably have logistical problems
Kherson, at the beginning of the Dnieper estuary, is a strategically important port city, a high-ranking US Department of Defense official said. If the Ukrainians managed to retake the city, it would complicate the Russian attack on the nearby Nikolayev, engulfed in fighting. It would also significantly hinder a possible land offensive towards the eastern port city of Odessa, he said. The possible capture of Kherson would be a “significant event” for the war in southern Ukraine, he added.
The representative of the Pentagon said that due to the fighting south of Nikolaev, the Russian army was blocked there, therefore there was no “direct threat” of an attack in Odessa. There is also no trace of any activity in favor of Odessa among the Russian warships in the Black Sea. He added that the Russian military was still struggling with logistical problems. Now there are “first signs” that the military wants to transfer additional Russian troops from Georgia to Ukraine, he said.