Ukrainian forces struck a number of targets around the occupied city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, on the night of August 2-3.
According to local media, several Russian bases and weapons depots were attacked in the Kherson region using US-supplied HIMARS advanced missile systems.
Ukrainian news site Obozrevatel reports that a Russian base was hit in Chernobayevka, on the outskirts of occupied Kherson.
This was confirmed on Facebook by the Ukrainian army’s official Operation Command South page, which said the target had been hit by “missile and artillery” fire.
Ukrainian troops fire a US-made M777 howitzer from their front-line position in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on August 1, 2022. Ukrainian forces also use HIMARS (not pictured) to engage Russian targets. SERGEY BOBOK/GETTY
A video posted on Telegram, which has not been independently confirmed by Newsweek, shows the Russian base at Chernobayevka being shelled.
In a separate incident, Ukrainian forces said they hit an ammunition depot in Berislav, further up the Dnieper River from Kherson.
According to the Observer, the target was successfully destroyed, with multiple secondary explosions as the stored munitions were detonated.
The Ukrainians also reported three strikes on Russian “bastions” in the Berislavsky and Bashansky districts, along with another on an ammunition depot in the same area.
Ukrainian forces are laying the groundwork for an operation to liberate Kherson, occupied by Russian troops in the first few days of the war, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying they are making “step by step” progress.
Recapturing Kherson would help secure Odessa, Ukraine’s most important Black Sea port and an obvious Russian target.
If all of Kherson Oblast can be captured, it would sever the land bridge between Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, the two Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine and Russia itself.
On Monday, US National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby announced that Washington would provide Ukraine with more missiles for its HIMARS as part of a new $550 million aid package.
Ukraine uses US-supplied HIMARS to strike Russian targets far behind the front lines, such as ammunition depots and command centers.
According to retired US Army General Mark Hertling, this was a game-changer in the fight against the Russian invasion, leaving Kremlin forces “in dire straits”.
Ukrainian forces have struck three bridges over the Dnieper using HIMARS, making it difficult for the Russians to reinforce their troops in Kherson.
These include the critically important Antonovsky Bridge, which has been left “probably unusable”.
Russian forces in the occupied parts of Kherson region are also facing an insurgency by Ukrainian guerrilla fighters, with sabotage and assassination attempts against a number of local collaborators.
Speaking to the BBC, one guerrilla explained how his team tracked the movements of Russian troops, then passed on details of artillery strikes to the Ukrainian army.
One official in the Russian-installed local administration was killed in a car bomb, while a number of others were injured.
Valery Kuleshov, a pro-Russian blogger, was shot and killed in Kherson in April in a suspected guerrilla attack.
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
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