Step by step, the Ukrainian armed forces are advancing in Kherson. However, according to Kyiv, bad weather is hampering the operation. An adviser to President Zelenskyy expects heavy fighting in the region. Meanwhile, Kremlin chief Putin is deploying Russia's nuclear forces.
Step by step, the Ukrainian armed forces in Kherson are working their way forward. However, according to Kyiv, bad weather is hampering the operation. An adviser to President Zelenskyy expects heavy fighting in the region. Meanwhile, Kremlin chief Putin again accuses the country of wanting to use a dirty bomb. The 245th day of the war at a glance.
Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson progressing with difficulty
According to the Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south of the country is proving to be more difficult than the offensive in the north-east. The rainy weather and terrain are making it difficult to recapture Russian-held areas in the Kherson region, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said. In the agricultural region, water supply canals were used as trenches by Russian troops.
An advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj expects heavy fighting in the region. "The situation around Cherson is clear. The Russians are stocking up and strengthening their group there," Oleksiy Arestovych said in an online video. "This means that no one is preparing to retreat. On the contrary, the heaviest battles will take place around Kherson."
The Russian occupiers also reported fighting in the Luhansk region today. Heavy fighting is ongoing in the Kreminna and Swatowe districts, a spokesman said. Since the advance of Ukrainian troops in neighboring Kharkiv, the front line has run through the two districts.
Putin pursues training of nuclear forces
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a training session for the strategic nuclear forces. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the exercise is in preparation for a possible hostile nuclear attack on Russia. The Kremlin provided photos showing Putin following the exercise via video link.
Putin later said that Ukraine had "virtually" lost its sovereignty as a state, leaving control of the country to the United States. The US today used Ukraine as a "battering ram" against Russia and the post-Soviet space, Putin told a meeting of representatives of the state security organs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The US is arming Ukraine with more and more heavy weapons, ignoring that the country is aiming for a nuclear bomb.
"It is also known that there are plans for a provocation to use a so-called dirty bomb," the 70-year-old claimed again without presenting any evidence. Ukraine dismisses the allegations as "nonsense" and Putin's disinformation campaign. The West sees no evidence of this either.
Stoltenberg: NATO will not be intimidated
According to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Russia's nuclear threats will not stop NATO from continuing to support Ukraine. The alliance will not be intimidated or deterred from supporting Ukraine's right to self-defense for as long as necessary, the Norwegian said at a press conference with Romania's Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca. The Ukrainian armed forces are getting stronger and better equipped every week. One of the goals of supporting Ukraine, Stoltenberg said, was to prepare the country as well as possible for subsequent negotiations with Russia.
Moscow is to recruit ex-elite warriors in Afghanistan
Moscow is apparently active in Afghanistan to recruit new personnel for the military. The US magazine "Foreign Policy" reports that former members of an elite Afghan commando have received job offers to fight with Russian troops against Ukraine. They are former fighters who were trained by US troops in Afghanistan and fought alongside the US and the western allies.
These fighters could become a "game changer" for Russia on the battlefield, the magazine quoted a former senior Afghan security official as saying. Another source - a former high-ranking military man in Afghanistan - suspects that the Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind the recruitment attempts.
London: Russian war opponents sabotage rail networks
Rail partisans are not only active in Belarus. According to British secret services, Russian opponents of the war have repeatedly sabotaged the rail network in their own country. The damage to a railway line near a village not far from the Russian-Belarusian border earlier this week was the sixth act since June that a Russian anti-war group called Stop the Wagons has claimed responsibility for, the UK Defense Ministry said.
The actions are part of a larger trend towards increased attacks on the rail networks in Russia and Belarus. The Russian army is heavily dependent on the more than 33,000 kilometers of rail network in Russia to transport its units to Ukraine.
Russia could transfer assets in annexed regions to Russian companies
Assets in the four recently annexed Ukrainian regions could be transferred to Russian companies, according to the Office of the President in Moscow. It is obvious that "abandoned assets" cannot be left dormant, says Presidential Office spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Russian government will deal with the problem. The annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which together form the industrial Donbass, as well as Zaporizhia and Kherson is not recognized internationally.
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