- The Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson is gathering speed – Great Britain
- Russia in ‘large-scale redeployment’ to south, Ukraine says
- Russian-backed forces seize the factory in Vaglehirsk
- Blinken says he plans to call Russia’s Lavrov
July 28 (Reuters) – A Ukrainian counter-offensive has effectively cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson and left thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnieper river “extremely vulnerable”, British defense and intelligence officials said on Thursday.
Ukraine has made it clear it intends to retake Kherson, which fell to Russia in the early days of the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces may have established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River and used new long-range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges crossing the Dnieper.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I am registering
“The Russian 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the Dnieper River now looks very vulnerable,” the intelligence agency said in a regular Twitter bulletin, adding that Kherson was virtually cut off from other Russian-occupied territories.
“His loss would seriously undermine Russia’s attempts to paint the occupation as a success.”
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, earlier tweeted that Russia was concentrating “the maximum number of troops” in the direction of Kherson, but did not elaborate.
Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia was carrying out a “large-scale redeployment” of forces from the east to the south, representing a strategic shift from offense to defense.
Zelensky said Ukraine would rebuild the Antoniv Bridge over the Dnieper and other crossings in the region.
“We are doing everything to ensure that the occupying forces do not have any logistical capabilities in our country,” he said in an address on Wednesday evening.
Russian officials previously said they would instead turn to pontoon bridges and ferries to move forces across the river.
Russian-backed forces on Wednesday said they had captured the Soviet-era coal-fired power plant, Ukraine’s second-largest, in what was Moscow’s first significant victory in more than three weeks. Read more
DIPLOMACY
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its neighbor. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he had planned a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – the first between the two diplomats since before the war.
The call in the coming days will not be “negotiations on Ukraine,” Blinken told a news conference, reiterating Washington’s position that any talks to end the war must be between Kyiv and Moscow.
Russia has not received an official request from Washington for a telephone conversation between Blinken and Lavrov, the TASS news agency reported.
The United States has made a “substantial offer” to Russia that it release American citizens, WNBA star Brittney Greener and former U.S. Marine Paul Whalen, Blinken said, without elaborating on what the United States is offering in return. Read more
Blinken said he would press Lavrov to respond to the proposal.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed a CNN report that Washington is willing to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in the US, as part of the deal.
Besides discussing the Americans detained by Russia, Blinken said he would raise with Lavrov the preliminary grain export deal reached last week between Russia, the United States, Turkey and Ukraine.
Russia cut gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in an energy standoff with the European Union. It has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since the invasion, but on Friday agreed to allow shipments across the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus and to world markets. Read more
The deal was almost immediately thrown into doubt when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, on Saturday, just 12 hours after the deal was signed.
Before the invasion and subsequent sanctions, Russia and Ukraine accounted for almost a third of the world’s wheat exports.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I am registering
Reports from Reuters bureaus; Written by Grant McCool and Stephen Coates; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feist.
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Add Comment