On Sunday, seven people were killed in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern Kherson area, including a 23-day-old infant girl, according to the country’s Internal Affairs Ministry.
A family – a husband, wife, 12-year-old boy, and 23-day-old girl — and another resident were murdered by artillery bombardment in the village of Shiroka Balka, on the banks of the Dnieper River.
Two men were slain and a lady was injured in the nearby village of Stanislav.
The raid on Kherson province came after Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar attempted to dispel rumors on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had landed on the occupied left (east) bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson district.
“Again, the expert hype around the Kherson region’s left bank began. “There are no reasons to be excited,” she stated.
According to Kherson regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin, three persons were injured in Russian attacks on the province on Saturday.
Ukrainian military sources stated Saturday evening that Kiev’s forces had made progress in the south, claiming some success near a significant settlement in the southern Zaporizhzhia area as well as conquering other unidentified territory.
Ukraine’s General Staff stated that they had “partial success” around the strategically crucial Robotyne sector in the Zaporizhzhia region, a key Russian strongpoint that Ukraine has to retake in order to push south towards Melitopol.
“There are freed areas. “The defense forces are working,” said General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine’s southern military.
Battles have erupted at various spots along the over 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in recent weeks as Ukraine launches a counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons and Western-trained troops against Russian forces that invaded over 18 months ago.
Since initiating a counteroffensive in early June, Ukrainian troops have only made incremental gains.
Local officials in Russia stated on Sunday that air defense systems shot down three drones over the Belgorod region, as well as one over the neighboring Kursk district, which both border Ukraine.
Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian border regions are fairly common. Drone attacks on Russian territory have increased since a drone was shot down above the Kremlin in early May. Attacks against Moscow and Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — a move that most of the world regarded illegal — have intensified in recent weeks.
After more than 17 months of war, firing drones at Russia has little military value for Ukraine, but the policy has helped to disturb Russians and bring the conflict’s effects home to them.
According to British defense sources, the Wagner mercenary force has played a crucial part in Russia’s military campaign, but there is a “realistic possibility” that the Kremlin is no longer providing funds.
The Ministry of Defense indicated in its recent intelligence briefing that Wagner was “likely moving towards a down-sizing and reconfiguration process” to save money, and that the Kremlin had “acted against some other business interests” of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to the officials, Belarusian authorities were the “second most plausible paymasters.”
Thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus in late June as part of a pact that ended their violent insurrection and allowed them and Prigozhin to avoid criminal prosecution.
