Ukraine campaigns to retake Kherson occupied region says sources

• Ukraine’s campaign to retake Kherson region is “gathering pace,” according to Western military sources.
• Russian-installed officials confirmed that the Antonivskiy Bridge had been severely damaged.
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• Antonivskiy Bridge will be replaced by ferries and pontoon bridges, deputy city leader Kirill Stremousov says.

Ukraine’s campaign to retake the occupied Kherson region is “gathering pace” according to Western military sources.

A vital bridge into the city of Kherson has been rendered inoperable after Ukrainian forces attacked it with long-range rockets supplied by the US.

According to British defense officials, the city is now “virtually cut off from other occupied territories.”

Senior Ukrainian officials, however, warned that Russia was now shifting its forces to the south.

The city, strategically located west of the Dnipro River, was the first to fall to Moscow’s forces during the war.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces fired at Kherson’s Antonivskiy Bridge with a Himars artillery rocket system, rendering the crossing “completely inoperable,” according to Western military sources.

Only a pockmarked wreck of the half-mile long bridge, one of two key routes spanning the Dnipro river that have both now been hit, is said to remain.

Moscow relies on the crossings to resupply their troops stationed west of the river, and are now at risk of becoming isolated from the rest of Russia’s occupying forces. A third bridge, over the Inhulets river to the north-east of Kherson city, has also been hit.

According to military sources, Kherson is “politically the closest Russia has to a jewel in the crown of its occupation,” and its loss “would severely undermine Russia’s attempts to portray the occupation as a success.”

According to a daily intelligence update, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the region is “gaining momentum,” with Kyiv’s forces likely establishing a bridgehead south of the Inhulets river, “which forms the northern boundary of Russian occupied Kherson.”

On Wednesday evening, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, stated that Moscow was now “moving the maximum number of troops in the Kherson direction.”

Meanwhile, Russian forces in the east claimed control of Ukraine’s second largest power plant, the Vuhlehirsk coal-fired power plant. Mr. Arestovych called it a “tiny, tactical advantage.”

Russian-installed officials in Kherson confirmed that the Antonivskiy Bridge had been severely damaged by a Ukrainian artillery strike, forcing its closure to traffic.

Deputy city leader Kirill Stremousov told Ria news agency that ferries and pontoon bridges would now be used to maintain connections across the Dnipro River with the rest of Russian-occupied territory.

Meanwhile, Russian forces in the east claimed control of Ukraine’s second largest power plant, the Vuhlehirsk coal-fired power plant. Mr. Arestovych called it a “tiny, tactical advantage.”

Russian-installed officials in Kherson confirmed that the Antonivskiy Bridge had been severely damaged by a Ukrainian artillery strike, forcing its closure to traffic.

Deputy city leader Kirill Stremousov told Ria news agency that ferries and pontoon bridges would now be used to maintain connections across the Dnipro River with the rest of Russian-occupied territory.