Counteroffensive in Kherson region: Ukrainian Armed Forces damage all three Russian-controlled bridges to Kherson - ISW

Polish Radio shared the news with reference to the American analytical center ISW, Institute for the Study of War. 

Ukrainian officials are increasingly openly talking about a counteroffensive in the Kherson region. On July 24, the Ukrainian Operational Command South announced the shelling of Russian transport infrastructure in the region.

"Last week, strikes by Ukrainian forces damaged all three Russian-controlled bridges leading to Kherson in order to prevent the occupiers from delivering military equipment to the city, the latest report of the Institute for the Study of War emphasizes. Meanwhile, among Russian nationalists, there is growing concern about the high-precision strikes of Ukrainian troops using mobile HIMARS missile and artillery systems. The Russian Telegram channel Moscow Calling described the delivery of these launchers to Ukraine as a turning point in the war and suggested that Ukrainian attacks on Russian warehouses, communications nodes and military bases would have a devastating and possibly irreversible effect on further Russian offensives," the message says.

Russian forces are forced to use various methods of avoiding these strikes, including camouflage and constant shifting of positions. This, in turn, makes it difficult for them to continue using the tactics of constant artillery fire, which they have used on a large scale so far, the American think tank estimates.

"The Kremlin is facing growing, albeit limited, resistance from ethnic minorities, who bear a disproportionately heavy burden of the war, the Institute for the Study of War emphasizes, pointing out that protest groups against such government policies have already been established in Tuva and Buryatia," ISW adds.

On Sunday, Russian troops tried to carry out ground attacks in the Donetsk region - northwest of Sloviansk, east of Siversk and south of Bakhmut, as well as in the Kherson region in the south. The Russian occupation authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine continued preparations for referendums aimed at joining these territories to Russia.