Kateryna Girnyk09:30, 04.12.24
Prokudin reported that the Russian troops had gathered 300 boats to cross the Dnipro.
The Russian army is advancing in Donbas , capturing more and more new territories, but there is another “valuable prize” for the occupiers on the front – Kherson. As the Financial Times writes , the Ukrainian authorities believe that Russia is preparing a large-scale offensive in this direction.
“Over the past month, Russia has captured an area roughly half the size of London in eastern Donetsk Oblast, according to Deep State data and the FT’s own calculations. They threaten Ukraine’s hold on the strategically important cities of Pokrovsk, Kurakhove and Velika Novosilka, and are within sight of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – the backbone of Ukraine’s military operations in the east,” the newspaper writes.
However, Kherson would be an even more valuable prize for Rossi, the FT notes, noting that the city became the first regional capital of Ukraine to be captured by Russian forces after a full-scale invasion in February 2022 and spent nine months under occupation.
Russians terrorize civilians with drones
As the newspaper writes, since mid-summer, the Russians have been conducting a massive campaign to devastate Kherson, hunting its residents with the help of attack drones:
“Peaceful residents of Kherson became the object of an experiment that has no precedent in a modern European war… Killer machines, sometimes in whole swarms, hover over houses, break into buildings and chase people on cars, bicycles or simply on foot. Their goal – not soldiers or tanks, but civilian life.”
According to the authorities, since mid-July, Kherson and neighboring villages have experienced more than 9,500 attacks using small drones, as a result of which at least 37 people died and hundreds were injured.
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of Kherson OVA, told the Financial Times that Russia has deployed several “best drone units” on the Dnipro. According to him, the Russians are launching modern models of drones, improving combat techniques and training new operators for their invasion.
The Ukrainian side suspects that Kherson was also used as “targets for training”. In particular, the Eyes on Russia project of the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), after analyzing drone attacks, found that the “vast majority” were carried out against moving or stationary vehicles – targets that are “difficult to reproduce in a test environment.”
“Killer drones are so common in Kherson that many people now carry small detectors that alert them that they are hovering nearby,” writes the FT.
Their flight range reaches 15 km, they fly at a low altitude and run at a speed of more than 100 km per hour, which makes it difficult to track and destroy them. Their favorite targets are military vehicles, ambulances, police cars, fire engines and humanitarian convoys. They are also directed to vulnerable, everyday places: crowded markets, gas stations, cafes, post offices and humanitarian aid centers.
“Ukrainian officials suspect that the attack is part of Russia’s plan to increase pressure on Kyiv before Donald Trump returns to the White House, accelerate gains on the battlefield and prepare for a potential advance across the Dnipro,” writes the FT.
Prokudin said that Russia wants to launch a new offensive here, adding that Russian troops have assembled “300 boats to cross the river.”