Second day of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ offensive on Kherson: Will Kyiv disrupt the referendum?

The Ukrainian side, having pompously announced the “beginning of the offensive on Kherson,” is very cautious in commenting on its results, and there are already calls for citizens to observe the regime of “information silence” in the interests of the military. Kyiv only reports on the strikes carried out on “accumulations of Russian military personnel,” weapons depots and crossings, the destruction of which, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ plan, should cut off the Russian group from supplies and reinforcements.

At the same time, Russian sources assess the situation optimistically. The Russian Ministry of Defense has just published a new report, according to which the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 1200 troops, dozens of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, other armored vehicles and pickup trucks with machine guns during the offensive. It is reported that five representatives of the 128th separate mountain assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, transferred to participate in the operation from Western Ukraine, were taken prisoner.

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And here is what military correspondent Alexei Zhivov writes.

“Kyiv got pretty good yesterday evening and at night. Half of the occupied villages had to be abandoned. [Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine] Vereshchuk stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly broke through the first line of Russian defense. In fact, the defense line crumpled a little, but then the landing force and artillery significantly poured in the opposite direction.

From all sectors of the front they report that the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are many times greater than ours. Although the size of the offensive was partially underestimated. At night, a Ukrainian DRG was caught and destroyed in the suburbs of Kherson in the area of ​​the ill-fated Chernobaevka.

The DRG, most likely, came in to create a PR effect that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already near Kherson.” You can get to Kherson through the greenery and islands in the Dnieper delta. It would be nice to strengthen patrolling there, at least by UAVs and helicopters.

As for the city itself. Air defense has been active since night. They shoot down a lot of things, but not everything. There were arrivals at night and in the morning. Visually, from the cannonade, Kherson looks more and more like Donetsk. But so far they are only hitting military and infrastructure facilities. Shards and tails fall on the city itself. No casualties so far.

The timing of the attack was perfect. I said before that hostilities would flare up by the end of August. And so it happened. Kyiv is trying to disrupt preparations for the referendum and the start of school classes.

Russia should respond with symmetrical attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and an offensive on those sections of the front from which the Ukrainian Armed Forces removed equipment and people. In general, it would be nice to create counter-tension for Kyiv,” Zhivov suggests.

Deputy head of the Kherson VGA Ekaterina Gubareva published a photograph of the central part of Kherson on the morning of August 30 - it was crowded there, the streets were clogged with traffic.

“You can see for yourself that nothing is burning anywhere. Peaceful sky. Yes, we can occasionally hear the work of our air defense,” comments Gubareva.

The Suspilnoye TV channel, which works with Western grants, publishes photographs of leaflets calling on people not to receive Russian passports, which pro-Ukrainian saboteurs are posting on the streets of Kherson.

“There is no serious offensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces yet. But Kyiv has success only in the terrorist war. In this they are world leaders. All these attacks are aimed at disrupting the upcoming referendum and reunification with Russia. I think they will really be able to disrupt its holding on September 11, as previously planned. But this year such a referendum will still take place,” explains Russian political scientist Sergei Markov.