President Volodymr Zelenskiy was the latest to cite progress by Kyiv’s troops attempting to retake ground on the Russian-controlled left or eastern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine.
“The Kherson’s region’s left bank. Our warriors,” Zelenskiy said in a posting to X, formerly Twitter. “I thank them for their strength and for moving forward.”
Zelenskiy’s comment seemed designed to emphasize what the nation’s Marine Corp. said earlier Friday were successful operations this week, including securing several new positions.
Potential progress is in contrast to the recent stepped-up assaults by Russian forces in Ukraine’s east, including around Bakhmut and Avdiivka, and what Ukraine’s top commander recently called a stalemate as the war moves into another winter.
Kyiv’s troops have “managed to gain a foothold” in several locations on the Dnipro front, the marines said on Facebook, using similar wording to a remark earlier in the week by Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office.
Ukrainian forces appear to have advanced near Krynky, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northeast of Kherson and about 2 km from the Dnipro’s banks, said the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
The Russia-installed governor of the part of the Kherson region that Moscow controls, Vladimir Saldo, said in a statement this week that Ukrainian forces had crossed the river and that additional troops had been brought in to control the threat, Reuters reported.
One of the main aims of the operation on the river’s left bank is to push Russian forces further away from the right bank in order to reduce the shelling of civilians there, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Telegram.
Kyiv’s forces are conducting subversive actions, raids and surveillance, as well as detecting logistics routes Russians use to supply their troops, the General Staff said. Ukrainian troops are also locating the positions of Russian forces and artillery in order to target them.
Krynky was one of several villages submerged when the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam was destroyed in June. Ukraine accused Russia, which had occupied the dam, of blowing it up, while Moscow said shelling by Kyiv’s troops was the cause.
Separately, on Thursday, Zelenskiy told reporters that Ukraine is better prepared for probable Russian strikes against its energy infrastructure than a year ago, when Kremlin attacks caused widespread outages to critical services.
“We are in better condition than last year, but I do not believe that Russia will use fewer weapons,” he said.
A year ago Russian forces were well into a relentless, months-long campaign of air strikes that targeted Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure including the energy grid, hospitals, schools and residential buildings. With the national power grid crippled at times, rolling blackouts became a fixture of daily life in the capital, Kyiv, and beyond.
Recent weeks have seen a lull in air attacks as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, conceived as a special military operation lasting days or weeks, grinds toward the 21-month mark. President Vladimir Putin’s forces may be accumulating missiles and shells for new attacks, Zelenskiy said.
Compared with a year ago Ukraine has additional air defense systems provided by allies, new bomb shelters and better-equipped “invincibility points” where people can get heat and power supply in the event of electricity shortages, Zelenskiy said.
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Earlier this month Zelenskiy announced that new NASAMS air defense systems from allies had been rushed into service and vowed that Ukraine would strike back if country’s electric grid is targeted by Russian forces.
--With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.
(Recasts with Zelenskiy comments on Dnipro River.)
