Ukraine announces that it has taken over 46 localities in the Kherson region from the Russians
Reinforced by deliveries of long-range artillery provided by the West, the Ukrainian army launched a counter-offensive in the Kherson region (illustration).
AP - Evgeniy Maloletka
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
The governor of the Kherson region announced on Monday, August 1, the recapture by Ukrainian forces of 46 localities in this strategic region located in the south of the country, as part of their counter-offensive.
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“
To date, 46 occupied localities have been liberated in the Kherson region
,” Dmytro Boutry told state television.
According to the governor, the villages taken over by the Ukrainian army are in the northern part of the region, on the border with that of Dnipropetrovsk, and in the southern part, on the border with the heavily bombarded Mykolaiv region.
Some of the recaptured villages “
have been 90% destroyed and are still under constant fire
”.
The humanitarian situation in the region is "
critical
", the governor said, reiterating the authorities' appeal to those who still remain in the region to "
evacuate to safer areas
".
During the first days of the invasion launched on February 24, Russian troops seized almost all of this strategic region bordering Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Russian forces took the capital of the region, Kherson, on March 3.
It was the first major city to fall to the Russians after the invasion began.
Last month, a Ukrainian official promised that the Kherson region would be taken over by Ukrainian forces by September.
And in recent weeks, the Ukrainian army, reinforced by deliveries of long-range artillery supplied by the West, has launched a counter-offensive.
Kyiv forces carried out strikes against Russian warehouses and military positions and damaged bridges serving as crucial supply routes for Moscow troops in the city of Kherson.
Mykolaiv heavily bombed
In the neighboring region of Mykolaiv, the Russian army continues its strikes.
The city was heavily shelled again on Monday, according to regional governor Vitali Kim, who reported three people killed.
“
The city is being destroyed.
But the luck is that there are few dead, few injured
, ”he said on his Telegram account.
“
Everything is open, the shops are open
,” said the governor, who even plans to reopen the port “
within two weeks
”.
Agence France-Presse journalists also noted an intense Russian bombardment of the city of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine.
Three civilians were killed on Sunday in the Donetsk region, including two in Bakhmout, and 16 others injured, local authorities said on Monday.
The Russian army claims to have destroyed two ammunition depots in this same region and a fuel depot near Nikopol (south-east).
It also claims to have destroyed two American Himars precision artillery systems during a strike on a factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, in the northeast.
On the diplomatic front, Russia on Monday banned entry into its territory to 39 additional British personalities, including Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer and former Prime Minister David Cameron.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which published this new list on the internet, the sanctioned personalities “
contribute to London's hostile policy aimed at demonizing Russia and isolating it on the international scene.
The ministry accuses the UK of spreading false information and stoking Russophobia.
Moscow is thus responding to the sanctions triggered against it by many Western countries since the start of the war against Ukraine at the end of February.
More than 250 British personalities are no longer allowed to travel to Russia.
Among them, the star television journalist Piers Morgan, preferred to react with humor.
“
This was not on my vacation to
-do list right now,” he wrote on Twitter.
(
And with
AFP)
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