Russians Trapped, Panic Starts: AFU Moving Towards Outskirts Of Kherson
- 1.09.2022, 10:34
Russian troops are cut in half in Kherson region.
The AFU are moving steadily towards Kherson - at the start of today they were about 20km away from the outskirts of the city. It is still difficult to say by how much the Ukrainian fighters have advanced since the beginning of the day, military expert Oleh Zhdanov told Natalia Moseychuk in an interview.
According to him, the General Staff has not yet commented on how exactly the front line in Kherson Region has changed. At the same time, CNN reports that there have been significant changes in favour of Ukrainian troops. There is little specificity.
"It's still more than 10 kilometres to Kherson. That's for sure," Zhdanov stated.
The expert noted that the AFU are now "working" against the enemy grouping on the right bank of the Dnieper River. This is quite expected.
"I predicted that the AFU would take out this grouping systematically and methodically with the help of artillery, including reactive artillery and aviation. This would be expedient. Now there is a break in logistics channels. This is what we have been witnessing for the third day now... The only problem now is catching the ferry crossing at the Antonivsky bridge. It's moving all the time. In order to catch it, we need a spotter who will tell us when it stops for loading or unloading," said Zhdanov.
The expert stated that the Russian troops in Kherson region are not only encircled. They are also cut in half. The crossings over the Ingulets river have been destroyed. There is no communication between the two units of the enemy grouping.
Zhdanov stressed that there is already a real panic among the occupiers, which is confirmed by the intercepts. The Russians realize that the bridges are destroyed, there are no ways to retreat, they are trapped.
"In fact, they (Russians - ed.) feel what we felt in the Donetsk direction. We are taking them out of their positions. If possible, we will move forward. There are two options: either they run or surrender," he noted.
Zhdanov reminded that a month ago, Kherson residents told how the Russians had bought out all the swimming gear after strikes on the Antonivsky Bridge. The occupants who have stocked up on inflatable mattresses have a chance of salvation. However, as the expert notes, crossing the Dnieper will be extremely difficult, and with ammunition it will be almost impossible.
In case of taking control over the right bank of the Dnieper, the AFU will take under fire control the provision of the enemy's Zaporizhzhia direction.
"We are actually cutting the ways to reinforce this grouping from the territory of Crimea. And the terrain there is such that if there are no settlements, it is impossible to entrench there. If our artillery takes the Russians out of their positions, we can gradually build bridges and move our grouping to the left bank," Zhdanov noted.
According to him, Ukrainian combat aviation is active in the Kherson direction, while Russian air defence is virtually absent in the region.