Ukrainian troops have breached Russian defenses in several front-line areas near the city of Kherson, a senior adviser to Zelensky claimed on Monday. Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video interview that Ukrainian forces are also shelling ferries in the Kherson region that Moscow uses to supply Russian-occupied territories on the west bank of the Dnieper River. Zelensky did not specifically mention the counterattack during his afternoon speech on Monday, but said: “The occupiers should know: we will chase them to the border. On our borders, the line of which has not changed.” Those who surrendered would be treated according to the Geneva Conventions, he said, adding: “If they don’t listen to me, they will face our defenders, who will not stop until they liberate everything that belongs to Ukraine.” “Ukraine is returning its own. He will return Kharkiv region, Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhia region, Kherson region, Crimea… This will happen.” Ukrainian troops recaptured four villages near the city of Kherson after breaking the front line in three places, CNN reported, citing a Ukrainian military source, with Kherson as the main “target”. The operation began with heavy shelling of Russian positions and the rear, forcing them to flee, the source said. Sergiy Khlan, a local deputy and adviser to the Kherson regional governor, told Ukraine’s Pryamyi TV channel that a “strong artillery attack on enemy positions in … the entire territory of the occupied Kherson region” began on Monday. “This is the announcement of what we have been waiting for since the spring – it is the beginning of the end of the occupation of the Kherson region,” he added. “What is happening now is a prepared, well-balanced launch of a counter-attack,” Khlan told AFP. Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged that a new Ukrainian offensive had been launched in Mykolayiv and Kherson regions, but said it had failed and Ukrainians had suffered significant casualties, the RIA news agency reported. “The enemy’s offensive attempt failed miserably,” he said. A Ukrainian rocket barrage left the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka just east of the city of Kherson without water or electricity, officials of the Russian-appointed local authority later told the agency. Reports of the battlefield could not be independently verified. Earlier on Monday, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command, Nataliya Humenyuk, confirmed that the counterattack had begun in Kherson province after a video circulated online purportedly showing a soldier from Russia’s self-proclaimed Donetsk republic saying that Ukrainian forces had broken through the first line of defense. “Today we launched offensive actions in various directions, including the Kherson region,” Khomenyuk said at a briefing, adding that Ukrainian forces had struck more than 10 locations in the past week and “undoubtedly weakened the enemy.” Khomeiniuk declined to elaborate, saying Russian forces in the south remained “quite strong” and that the operation needed “silence” as media attention could affect the results. Her claims could not be independently verified. He urged residents in the area to either leave immediately or seek shelter. Khomeiniuk said Russian forces were strong and that although morale was low in their ranks, “it was too early to relax.” Western and Ukrainian military intelligence has noted a build-up of Russian troops and equipment this summer, suggesting Russia was preparing its own offensive. But Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak warned politicians, experts and opinion leaders against speculating on the progress of a military operation before Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and military issue official statements. “I understand our wishes and dreams… But war is not a ‘wish’. Let’s filter the information and work professionally out of respect for our defenders,” he wrote on Telegram. Zelensky agreed: “Does anyone want to know what our plans are? You won’t hear any details from anyone actually in charge. Because this is war. And this is during the war.”
