“Russian forces clearly did not expect to be able to prevent Ukrainian forces from crossing the river, nor did the Russians prioritize defensive positions to prevent such a river crossing,” said the Institute for the Study of War. said last week after analyzing publicly available satellite photographs of Russian defensive positions.
Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson is both an embarrassment to the Kremlin, which has only recently declared the region part of Russia, and a strategic obstacle, as it puts the Ukrainians in a better position. to threaten supply lines from Crimea for a long time. Western-supplied long-range precision weapons.
Since the retreat, Russian forces have continued to shell the area and the city of Kherson. Ukrainian local government say on saturday that the Russian military opened fire 28 times the previous day, hitting several targets, including residential buildings and a cancer center. Those details cannot be independently verified.
After being pushed through the Dnipro, Russian forces began to fortify defensive positions about 10 to 20 miles from the east coast, according to the Ukrainian military and satellite images. But the river divided Ukrainian and Russian forces along a route that stretched for more than 200 miles, and Russian forces were thinned out.
Farther northeast, where the river expands into a vast reservoir blocked by an important dam in Nova Kakhovka, Ukrainian officials and residents say Russia’s occupation authorities over the past week have began to flee further east.
The Ukrainian military notes that it is seeing a decrease in the number of Russian troops in towns and villages along the river. “A minimal number of occupiers remained in the cities,” military said last month.
The account is supported by locals contacted by phone in recent days.
To the north of the dam, speculation continues to swirl around Russian intentions at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of the war and where Ukrainian intelligence estimates there are at least 500 troops. Russian soldiers are stationed.
