A counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces is underway, which, according to the Operational Command South, are advancing towards Kherson. At the same time, “these moves are being made discreetly”.
“The armed forces of Ukraine are moving in the Kherson direction and these are very decisive steps. They are being performed quietly, discreetly, to consolidate in these areas and then report on successes,” the spokeswoman of the Operational Command South, Natalia Humeniuk, announced on Espreso TV.
Caution is advisable, she stressed, as Russian forces may leave “dangerous surprises” in abandoned areas.
The spokeswoman added that Russian troops continue to attack Snake Island in the Black Sea using aviation.
Acting head of the regional government Dmytro Butriy stated on Thursday that Ukrainian forces have so far liberated 44 localities in the Kherson region, but the vast majority of the region is still occupied by Russian troops.
There is also an active guerrilla movement in the southern direction, of which the Western media consider Melitopol to be the centre.
On 3 July, unknown perpetrators blew up a bridge between Melitopol and Tokmak over which weapons were being transported. The mayor of the city said it was the work of the resistance movement. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the resistance killed 70 Russian soldiers patrolling the city at night in Melitopol. Collaborators and Russian officials constituting the occupying power walk around in bulletproof vests and with security guards. The pro-Russian mayor changed his residence after a failed assassination attempt was made on him, but guerrillas know where he now lives, reports The Economist.
“Anyone can be a partisan where they are – whether they are a cleaner or the director of some municipal institution. You can fail to tighten the wheels, fail to add oil so that the engine seizes up (…) the plumber knows how to screw a pipe so that after four days it clogs up, everything in the occupier’s office starts to float, and they walk up to their knees in faecal matter. The clerk knows (…) how to cause a document requiring five signatures to be withdrawn for reconsideration. (…) It is all sabotage (…). A flyer, graffiti, a channel on Telegram, and a threatening note stuck on a car. Believe it, if for three months some private or officer from Rostov lives in a place where everyone wishes him dead, without his family, in addition to which he is oppressed by the command because he cannot cope with the tasks imposed – this is a huge blow to his moral-psychological condition,” says a spokesperson for the Centre for National Opposition, who wishes to remain anonymous.