At least four people died and 4 more were injured in Russian shelling of the central part of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv which was the subject of fierce attacks in the early stages of the war, the regional governor Oleh Synehubov wrote Tuesday on the Telegram messaging app.
Previously last week, Kharkiv was stricken by Russian shells twice, during which eight people were killed and over four dozen were wounded.
In Rozdolne and Pivnichne in the Donetsk region, Russian forces have killed two people and injured four others, the region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram, while city officials and witnesses in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv informed that Russian shelling of the residential areas in the city has killed two people.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s southern command spokesperson, Natalia Humeniuk, has said that Ukrainian troops are mounting a long-awaited counteroffensive in the southern region of Kherson, declining to provide more details
As per Oleksiy Arestovych, senior adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, the counteroffensive is a planned operation to grind the enemy that might be slow but will end with the installation of the Ukrainian flag over all the settlements of Ukraine.
Ukraine military officials argue that Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russia’s southern logistical routes had weakened the enemy troops with Zelenskiy warning the Russian military to flee if they want to survive.
The US assessments are also indicating that Moscow has been able to deploy fewer units to the front lines than initially thought.
Two senior US officials briefed on the intelligence confirmed that Ukrainian forces have begun shaping operations in southern Ukraine to prepare for the significant Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has long been anticipated.
According to US officials, the counteroffensive will include a combination of air and ground operations and shaping ops are a standard military practice that involves striking weapons systems, command and control, ammunition depots, and other targets to prepare the battlefield for planned advances.
Ukraine indicated that the actions were underway as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has passed its six-month mark.