Ukrainian troops try to advance on the Russian side of the Dnieper River after gaining footholds

2023-11-18 21:22:58

Updated Saturday, 18 November 2023 – 20:22

Ukraine’s establishment of footholds on the Russian bank of the Dnieper represents a small but potentially significant strategic advance amid a largely stagnant war.

Ukrainian troops during the last days.Kateryna KlochkoEFEDirect last hour of the war in Ukraine

Las ukrainian troops work to push back the Russian forces positioned on the eastern bank of the river DnieperThe army announced this Saturday, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the partially occupied Kherson region.

Ukraine’s establishment of footholds on the Russian bank of the Dnieper represents a small but potentially significant strategic advance amid a largely stagnant war. The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces has declared that its troops had repelled 12 attacks by the Russian army between Friday and Saturday.

The Ukrainians were now trying to “push back the Russian army units as much as possible to make life easier on the (western) shore of the Kherson region, so that they would receive less shelling,” said Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Operational Command. from Ukraine.

In response, The Russian army used “tactical aviation”including Iranian-made Shahed explosive drones, to try to immobilize Ukrainian troops, Humeniuk explained.

The wide river is a natural dividing line along the southern battlefront. Since withdrawing from the city of Jerusalem and retreating across the Dnieper a year ago, Moscow forces have regularly bombed communities on the Ukrainian side of the river to prevent kyiv soldiers from advancing towards Crimea, annexed by Russia.

In the capital, hundreds of people gathered to oppose corruption and demand the reallocation of public funds to the armed forces. The demonstration was the tenth in a series of protests in kyiv amid outrage over municipal projects. On Saturday, the protesters They carried Ukrainian flags and banners with slogans such as “We need drones, not stadiums.”

“I have organized demonstrations in more than 100 cities protesting against corruption in Ukraine and for more money, which should go to the army,” said Maria Barbash, an activist with the organization Money for the Armed Forces. “The first priority of our budget – the local budgets and the central budget – should be the army.”