Ukraine officially launches counter-offensive in the south

A Ukrainian soldier on the front line in the Mykolaiv region, in the south of the country, on August 11, 2022. REUTERS - STRINGER

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Mentioned for several weeks, the Ukrainian authorities officially announced on Monday August 28 that they had launched a counter-offensive in the south of the country, in several directions.

Is this the long-awaited Great Decisive Battle of the South?

In any case, the night seems to have been very difficult for the Russian forces in the Kherson region.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

Any military operation requires silence.

This is what Natalya Humenyuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military command, said on Monday.

But on Monday, in all likelihood, the Ukrainian armed forces launched a sudden operation along the entire southern front line, from around Zaporizhia to the Black Sea.

At this point, it seems that the Ukrainian army has in several places broken the first of the three Russian lines of defense before Kherson, sometimes advancing more than ten kilometers.

Massive artillery strikes concentrated on Nova Kakhovka and the vicinity of Kherson, rendering the pontoons on the Dnieper installed by the Russians impassable.

►Also read: War in Ukraine: in the Kherson region, the counter-offensive has already begun

The Ukrainian counter-attack is essentially aimed at

, which fell into Russian hands at the start of the war, local officials said.

flood of fire

Last night, Ukrainian soldiers posted videos on social networks, attesting to their presence well deep in enemy lines, while similar videos on the Russian side seem to indicate a surprise effect, and units caught off guard speak of the deluge of Ukrainian fire.

Even if Russia claimed to have repelled

Ukrainian "

It seems that kyiv has already taken over more than the four localities officially reconquered for 24 hours.

In any case, in the days to come, the challenge for the Ukrainians will be to lock up more than 20,000 Russian soldiers west of the Dnieper, making it impossible to cross the river.

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