NEW: The Ukrainians caught the Russians off-guard and took the fight to the invaders, but further gains could come at a heavy price.
, and this is why it actually does matter whether its forces fell apart in Kharkiv, or conducted a “strategic withdrawal” – no matter how messy – abandoning land it had conquered in order to consolidate its lines. It’s an easily understood dynamic: the less territory Russia is holding, the more troops it will have available to defend them with greater concentrations of firepower.
Liberating the southern city of Kherson is an obvious immediate strategic goal for the Ukrainian military, and a necessary precursor to any efforts to reclaim occupied territory further south. Grasping this geography is essential to understanding the challenges and goals of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, as well as the Russian defensive strategy.
The next river crossing is at Nova Kakhovka, about 30 miles upstream of the Antonivsky Bridge, and the last crossing point until more than 125 miles upstream to the northeast, in the city of Zaporizhzhya. Ukraine’s military leadership has been dutifully close-mouthed about the details of their operations, but the government did confirm an operation is underway: “Ukrainian troops have already broken through the first line of defense of the occupiers near Kherson,” Ukraine’s official strategic communications account“It is precisely because we used caution and precision when hitting the bridges which are the main transport arteries across the Dnipro that they became impassable for heavy machinery.
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