Photo: Suspilne Kherson

The Russian army is preparing for a new offensive on Kherson, having assembled 300 boats to cross the Dnipro River. The head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said this in an interview with the Financial Times.

“Russia wants to launch another offensive here,” Prokudin said, adding that Russian troops have prepared a large number of watercraft for this purpose. According to him, the Russian army is currently actively conducting attacks on the city and surrounding areas using drones. From mid-July to date, Russians have carried out more than 9,500 attacks with small drones, which has resulted in at least 37 deaths and numerous injuries among civilians.

At the same time, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army “South”, noted that Russian troops are trying to seize river islands, in particular, they conducted a large-scale attack on Kozatsky Island northeast of Kherson, near Nova Kakhovka.

The Financial Times suggests that a new offensive on Kherson could become an important target for the Russians, as this city was the first regional centre captured by the occupiers after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

We would like to remind you that Kherson was liberated from Russian invaders on 11 November 2022, which was a significant victory for Ukrainian forces. In addition to Kherson itself, other districts of the region and part of Mykolaiv region on the right bank of the Dnipro were liberated.