The Ukrainian presidential advisor announced the start of the operation to “liberate Kherson” from the grip of the Russians, while the Russian forces intensified their artillery and missile bombardment on several Ukrainian cities, especially Kharkiv.
On Thursday, Russian forces launched intensive missile strikes on the Ukrainian regions of Kyiv and Chernihiv, which have not been targeted for weeks, while Ukrainian officials announced the launch of an operation to liberate an occupied area in the south of the country.
The governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram that residential areas in the Vyshgorod region were targeted in the early hours of Thursday morning, and the bombing targeted “infrastructure”, and it was not immediately clear whether there were casualties, according to AFP.
The governor of Chernihiv, Vyacheslav Chaus, stated that the Honsharevska region was bombed by several missiles fired from Belarusian territory.
Russian forces withdrew from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions months ago, failing to capture either.
The raids that targeted the region come a day after the leader of the separatists loyal to the Kremlin in the east, Denis Pushlin, called on the Russian forces to what he called “the liberation of the Russian cities founded by the Russian people.”
In a related context, the city of Mykolaiv was bombed, which resulted in the injury of one person, according to “AFP”.
The Russians are trying to “destroy Kharkiv”
For his part, the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said that Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, was also hit by a barrage of missiles during the night.
Kharkiv, a mostly Russian-speaking city located tens of kilometers from the border, has found itself on the front line since February 24 and has been the scene of intense bombing and fighting.
But the Russians could not occupy it, and they began to retreat in front of the resistance of the Ukrainian army since mid-April, however, the city is still subjected to intense bombardment and casualties are recorded daily.
In an interview with “AFP”, he says that the Russians “are trying to turn Kharkiv into a miserable city like the cities in Russia, but they will not succeed.”
The mayor continues, “The city includes nine neighborhoods, all of which were bombed to varying degrees and at different times. Therefore, we can say that there is no safe place in Kharkiv,” adding, “Yes, you are safe in the shelters and in the metro, but that’s all.”
By the end of March, about a third of Kharkiv’s pre-war population of 1.4 million had fled to the west, and the city enjoyed a brief respite in early May when Russian forces retreated to focus the main fighting on the Battle of Donbass in the east.
At that time, about two thousand people were returning to Kharkiv every day, shops were opening and residents began to leave their shelters, but the truce did not last long.
Igor Terekhov estimates the number of victims in the hundreds, but he does not have an accurate toll. “We are facing a genocide against the Ukrainian people and nation,” he says.
About 30 percent of the city’s homes and apartments were destroyed, according to the mayor, who estimates the number of homeless people at 150,000.
“101 kindergartens, 110 schools, 53 medical institutions and maternity centers have been destroyed,” Terekhov explained, noting that “most of these infrastructures cannot be reconstructed.”
Many municipal officials fear that Russian forces will make a new attempt to take Kharkiv.
“We are preparing for it, our army is preparing for it, and we will defend our city,” the mayor says, acknowledging at the same time that he does not know what the Russian intentions are, but expressed his hope that the Ukrainian victory will be achieved “as soon as possible.”
Ukraine begins Operation “Liberation of Kherson”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army continued its counterattack in the occupied southern Kherson region, bombing a major bridge over the Dnieper River, on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Ukrainian media quoted Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Aristovich as saying that the operation to liberate Kherson “has already begun.”
Aristovich indicated that the Kyiv forces were planning to isolate the Russian forces there and leave them in front of three options: “retreat, if possible, surrender or destroy”, according to “AFP”.
The military governor of the Kherson region, Dmytro Putri, said that the Ukrainian forces have so far liberated 44 towns and villages, equivalent to about 15 percent of the lands occupied by Russia, according to “The Wall Street Journal“.
Russia is moving some of its forces from eastern Ukraine to parts of the Kherson region and Zaporizhzhya region in southern Ukraine, to confront the Ukrainian movements.
Kyiv benefits from Western arms supplies that have “altered the balance on the battlefield and contributed to a marked slowdown in Russia’s bid to seize territory in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine,” according to the Wall Street Journal.