Occupiers are evacuating their families from Kherson, but it’s still early to celebrate the victory

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Head of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, Serhii Kuzan, speaks about the Defense Forces’ strategy, their advancement in the Kherson region, and explains why the occupiers are taking people out of the occupied city.
photo: khersoncouncil

photo: khersoncouncil

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The head of the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense, Kyrylo Budanov, believes that Ukrainian defenders will make significant progress in the Kherson region by the end of the year. I support this prediction, because he has full information and is well acquainted with the enemy’s strategy and our capabilities.

In the Kherson region, since the beginning of summer, the Defense Forces have implemented a strategy that consists in exhausting the enemy. Remember: when our counteroffensive in the Kherson region was launched, the Russians began to withdraw troops from other areas of the front and transfer significant forces to the Kherson direction. They fulfilled Putin’s political task, because Kherson was the only regional center the Russians have managed to capture since the beginning of the full-scale war. Of course, Putin could not lose this place and has accumulated significant forces there.

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However, progress in the Kherson region is not as fast and rapid as we would like it to be. Russia has accumulated 20-25 battalion tactical groups there, that compose the main strike tool of the Russian army. In addition, they transferred airborne assault units to this direction, and also Russian regular units, in particular the 35th general military army of the eastern direction. That is, they have concentrated significant forces there, and the situation in this direction will be difficult. Therefore, our command adopted a radically different way of waging war in order not to act linearly, as the Russians do.

When our defenders hit the crossings [over the Dnieper,] they exhausted the enemy’s resources, because such a large group needs a lot of fuel, ammunition, rotation, and equipment. Still, it also forced the Russians to redeploy their forces.

We shouldn’t, however, make predictions about the dates of liberation. We can say that we’ve already seized the initiative – and it belongs to the Ukrainians. The Russians are trying to organize a defense, but we feel more confident, we most actively use strike aircraft. We are actively suppressing them, they can no longer freely operate their own aircraft.

I think that when Kherson is liberated, the Russians will launch a terror campaign against the civilian population, they can bombard the city with «GRAD» and rockets. The situation may be the same as with Kharkiv. In fact, such a fate is in store for any of our front-line cities. This is the tactic of the enemy: terror against the civilian population. There is no need to hope that a different strategy will be applied to Kherson. Russia is a terrorist state. It uses the army and missile forces not against the military, but against civilian objects.

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During the last two weeks, the occupiers have been taking their families out of Kherson. They are already conducting a mass campaign, urging people to leave the city. The Russians conduct such information campaigns and use them as a means to cover themselves. They understand that in such cases, we will not strike at crossings if the civilians are there, because we strike purely at military facilities. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the occupiers are leaving Kherson – the military remains there, their total number is about 20 thousand, and large groups are regularly replenished. It’s too early for us to celebrate the victory, there will still be heavy, bloody battles.

Translated by Vitalii Holich

The author’s column is a reflection of the author’s subjective position. The editors of «Tvoe Misto» do not always share the opinions expressed in the columns, and are ready to give those who disagree the opportunity for a reasoned answer.

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