The weather and geography make the southern attack difficult

• Ukraine’s defense minister says Ukraine’s counteroffensive is more challenging in southern Kherson region.
• Kiev’s forces are increasing pressure on Moscow’s troops in strategically significant region.
• Oleksii Reznikov said that the Russians utilize like trenches.

The terrain and the wet weather are making Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian soldiers in the southern Kherson region more challenging than it was in the northeast, according to the country’s defense minister.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is at risk of suffering yet another significant defeat on the battlefield as Kiev’s forces up the pressure on Moscow’s troops in the strategically significant Kherson region, which Moscow has only partially controlled since the beginning of its invasion.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, said at a news conference on Wednesday: “First of all, the south of Ukraine is an agricultural zone. We have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians utilize them like trenches.” It is more practical for them.

“Weather conditions are the second factor. The employment of battle carrying vehicles with wheels is especially difficult during the wet season, he added, adding that this limited the options available to Ukraine’s armed forces.

He continued, “The Kherson counteroffensive assault is more tough than the Kharkiv counteroffensive campaign.

At least 70,000 people have left their homes in the province in the past week, according to a local administrator appointed by Moscow, after residents were persuaded to flee because of the Ukrainian invasion.

In reference to efforts to relocate citizens to the Russian-controlled districts on the left bank of the Dniper River, Vladimir Saldo told a regional TV channel, “I’m confident that more than 70,000 people departed in a week since the crossings were organized.”

He stated that this number might be higher because individuals could have accessed the river with their own boats as opposed to organized ferries.
This migration of people has been equated to “deportations” in Kiev.

In a statement on his social media, Saldo added that admission had been prohibited to the region’s right bank for a period of seven days “because to the difficult situation on the contact line”.

Additionally, he asserted that there was a “instant threat of flooding” and “mass devastation of civilian infrastructure,” and that Kyiv was getting ready to launch an attack on the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River.

The infrastructure is essential for the water supply of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has occupied. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia is plotting to blow up the plant to cause a catastrophic flood.

Fears that Moscow would deploy a nuclear weapon have grown as a result of the possibility of another setback for Russia in southern Ukraine after its soldiers withdrew from Kiev and later in the northeast. Putin has consistently stated that Russia is entitled to self-defense with all available weapons.

Reznikov, though, asserted: “In my personal view, Putin won’t use nukes.”

Since October 10, Moscow, which has the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world, has begun waves of conventional missile and drone attacks aimed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. After several Russian victories on the battlefield in September and an explosion on the Kerch bridge, which connects seized Crimea to Russia, hostilities escalated.

According to Kyiv, the Russian attacks caused up to 40% of the nation’s power system to be destroyed.

Winter, which is only a few weeks away, can bring temperatures well below zero degrees Celsius. Kyiv has urged its international allies to aid by accelerating the delivery of air defense systems.

Reznikov said that Ukraine would get high-tech anti-aircraft National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) from the United States within the next 10 days.

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