Las ukrainian troops work to push back the Russian forces positioned on the eastern bank of the river Dnieperthe army announced this Saturday, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the partially occupied Kherson region.
Ukraine’s establishment of footholds on the Russian bank of the Dnieper represents a small but potentially significant strategic advance amid a largely stagnant war. The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces has stated that its troops had repelled 12 attacks by the Russian army between Friday and Saturday.
The Ukrainians were now trying to “push back the Russian army units as much as possible to make life easier on the (western) shore of the Kherson region, so that they receive less shelling,” said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Southern Operational Command. from Ukraine.
In response, the Russian army used “tactical aviation”including Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones, to try to immobilize Ukrainian troops, Humeniuk explained.
The wide river is a natural dividing line along the southern battlefront. Since withdrawing from the city of Kherson and retreating across the Dnieper a year ago, Moscow’s forces have regularly shelled communities on the Ukrainian side of the river to prevent kyiv soldiers from advancing towards Crimea, annexed by Russia.