Ukraine Could Retake Kherson City Up to the Dnipro River

Ukraine will soon cutoff Russian troops in Kherson on the Northern side of the Dnipro River from resupply. They are destroying bridges and have already rendered certain bridges mostly unusable.

This will enable Ukraine’s larger number of troops to outnumber and overwhelm Russian troops without resupply.

This retaking of significant territory currently held by Russian troops would be significant. Ukraine lost part of the Donbas area on the other side of the country.

Controlling Kherson would enable to Ukraine to cutoff water to Crimea.

Denys Davydov provides the report. He also reports on overall artillery strikes.

The Kyiv Independent describes what the liberation of Kherson would look like with a Ukrainian counter offensive.

Key targets
There are three key objectives Ukraine has to meet in order to encircle Russian troops and force them to surrender in Kherson.

Ukraine would have to impose firm control over the M14/P47 highway that runs east of Kherson and connects the city with Nova Kakhovka, one of Russia’s key bases in Ukraine’s southern Kherson Oblast and the site of recent attacks on Russian ammunition depots carried out with the help of newly delivered Western weapons.

It would also need to destroy two bridges across the Dnipro River, the Antonivsky Bridges, one for vehicle traffic and the other for railway, close to the town of Antonivka on the outskirts of Kherson. The two bridges currently allow Russia to reinforce its garrison in Kherson from occupied territory across the river.

Ukraine would also have to cut off the Kakhovska Hydroelectric Power Plant in Nova Kakhovka some 55 kilometers east of Kherson. The dam also serves as a bridge, along which the M14/P47 highway runs.

If the highway is cut off by Ukraine, Russian forces would have no way of getting across the Dnipro. With the two Antonivksy bridges destroyed, the only other way to make it across the Dnipro’s right bank is in Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia over 200 kilometers away from Kherson.

This first phase would only be considered successful once Russian forces are blocked and cut off from supplies and reinforcements.

If successful, Russian forces in Kherson would be backed up against a giant natural obstacle. The Dnipro River is nearly 350 meters wide near the city. Ukrainian artillery would also be close enough to prevent Russian forces from installing any sort of river cross, such as floating bridges.