Published on: 27.10.2022 – 07:43
Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving to be more difficult than in the north-east, Ukraine’s Defense Minister said yesterday, Wednesday. According to Oleksii Reznikov, the deteriorating weather conditions and the terrain come into question. The Ukrainian army launched a counter-offensive in early September to retake Kherson and its region, which have been in the hands of Russian forces since the first weeks of the war. Operations that we are closely following on the Mykolaiv side, about fifty kilometers from Kherson as the crow flies.
with our special correspondents in Mykolayiv, Anastasia Becchio and Boris Vicit
The Ukrainian army is stingy with comments, little information is getting through from the field, but the Kherson front is hope for many people and every Ukrainian advance here is seen as a small victory.
Mykolaiv repelled the Russian attacks in the spring, but because of its proximity to the front, the port city was bombed almost constantly. The authorities take stock: since the start of the Russian military operation eight months ago, the city has known only 41 days without an attack. Several alarms sounded overnight: according to the Air Force, 3 Iranian drones were intercepted over the region and 15 in the neighboring Odessa region.
► also read : In Kherson, residents are torn between staying and evacuating to Russia
water and power outages
Many civilian buildings were attacked here: hospitals, universities, apartment buildings and a few days ago a large power plant. Now power outages are adding to the water supply problems. “If our forces retake Kherson, or rather if they retake Kherson, we will stop being the city near the front line and the shelling we suffer could be reduced by 95 percent. In addition, there is great hope that when we recover Kherson, we will bring back the drinking water that came from there so that we can distribute ordinary water,” confides local MP Dmitry Sichko.
Salty and yellow water flows from the taps since the pipe that brought water from the Dnieper was bombed in April. If the Ukrainians take over the sector, repair work could begin, hopes Boris Doudenko, director of Mykolaiv Vodokanal, the public water utility.
“The only thing we don’t expect is for our armed forces to tell us, ‘You can go and fix it.’ We negotiated with the Russians three times, but they wouldn’t let us go.Our “crazy” neighbor uses water as a weapon, he regrets.
► also read : In Mykolaiv, obtaining water is becoming more and more complicated
In the meantime, the authorities are building weather-protected premises for the water distribution points that freeze in winter. Because of concern when temperatures drop, authorities have installed generators in hospitals and other places designed to welcome the public. They are also waiting for the delivery of mobile boiler rooms promised by Denmark. Every day technicians repair damaged pipes or cables.
But as long as the Russians hold Kherson, the military threat remains for the approximately 200,000 remaining residents who repeat like a mantra: “We have confidence in our armed forces”, “We will win”.