Ukraine launches a counter-attack to regain control of the city of Kherson

The Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in the south aimed at driving Russian forces to the other side of the Dnieper River and regaining control of the occupied city of Kherson, local authorities announced Monday.

“Today, strong artillery attacks were launched against enemy positions… On the entire territory of the occupied Kherson region… It is the beginning of the end of the occupation of the Kherson region,” local official and advisor to the regional governor Sergey Khelan told Ukrainian television.

He stressed that the Ukrainian forces have the preference on the southern front after several strikes in recent weeks that targeted bridges in the Kherson region and aimed at impeding the logistical work of the Russian army.

Earlier, Ukrainian media quoted a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Army’s Southern Command, Natalia Gomenyuk, as saying that Kyiv’s forces were attacking in several directions on this front.

The Ukrainian military group “Kakhovka” reported on Facebook that it had noticed the withdrawal of a unit of pro-Moscow separatist fighters from its positions in the region.

This information couldn’t be confirmed by an independent source.

Since the beginning of the invasion, Russian forces have taken control of the city of Kherson (280,000 people) on the banks of the Dnieper River.

This region is essential to Russian agriculture and is strategic as it borders Crimea, which Moscow annexed in March 2014.

Meanwhile, an Israeli company specializing in satellite imagery said that Russia has moved a battery of S300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to a Russian port near Crimea, apparently in an attempt to bolster its air defenses in the war with Ukraine.

ImageSat International, known as ISI, took pictures showing the presence of the S300 anti-aircraft battery in Masyaf, Syria, in April, and other pictures of the site after it was empty on August 25, after its components were transferred to the port of Tartous.

Separate photos showed battery components on a dock in Tartous, between August 12-17.

By August 20, it had permanently departed, and the company concluded that it had been shipped aboard the Russian ship, the Sparta 2, which departed from Tartous for the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Data from Refinitiv Icon shows that Sparta 2 is currently in Novorossiysk, having reached port through the Dardanelles Strait in Türkiye.

The Russian Defense Ministry declined to comment on the matter.

For its part, Russia accused the Ukrainian forces of bombing the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which resulted in new damage to the site of the plant.

“National units of the Ukrainian armed forces fired artillery shells near the reactor units of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” the Russian military administration in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar said Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.

It was reported that the ceiling of the uranium storage hall was damaged.

Vladimir Rogov, the military governor of the Zaporizhia region, who was appointed by Moscow, posted pictures of the bombing on Telegram.

Rogov says the shells were fired from an M777 howitzer supplied by the United States to Ukraine.

This comes at a time when the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, announced today that a team of IAEA experts is on its way to the Zaporizhia station.

Grossi tweeted, “Here comes the day, the IAEA support and assistance mission to Zaporizhia is now on its way”.

“We must protect the safety and security of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe,” he tweeted.

I am proud to lead this expedition, which will be at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant later this week”.

The agency said that experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency were appointed to assess the physical damage to the plant, determine the adequacy of safety and security systems, assess the status of personnel and carry out urgent protection activities.