the Russian invaders want to launch an offensive on Kherson. They collected 300 boats to cross the Dnieper River. This was stated by the head of the Kherson RMA Alexander Prokudin Financial Times, reports UNN.
Details
The Financial Times reports that Ukrainian officials suspect the assault is part of Russia's plan to increase pressure on Kiev before Donald Trump returns to the White House, accelerating progress on the battlefield and preparing for a potential offensive across the Dnieper River.
"Russia wants to launch another offensive here, "Prokudin said, adding that Russian forces had assembled"300 boats to cross the river.
The speaker of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army "South" Sergey Bratchuk said that Russian troops are trying to capture the river islands and get closer to the Western Bank of Kherson. Recently, they launched a major offensive on Kazatsky Island northeast of the city, near Novaya Kakhovka.
As the FT notes, the events in Kherson come at a time when Moscow's forces elsewhere are achieving the fastest territorial gains since the first weeks of the 2022 invasion.
"In the last month alone, Russia has seized territory about half the size of London in the eastern Donetsk region, according to Deep State and the FT's own calculations. They threaten Ukraine's retention of strategically important cities: Pokrovsk, Kurakhovo and Velikaya Novoselka, and are also in the field of view of the Dnipropetrovsk region — the core of Ukraine's military operations in the East," the Financial Times notes.
The publication notes that Kherson would be an even bigger prize for the Russian Federation. It was the first regional Ukrainian capital captured by Russian troops since a full-scale invasion in February 2022, spending nine months under occupation before the city was liberated in Ukraine's latest successful counteroffensive.
Addition
On November 27, the representative of the Southern Defense Forces Vladislav Voloshin reported on fierce battles for the "Dnieper islands" in the Kherson region.