Armoured Humvees have crossed the Dnipro river as Ukraine established a foothold that they hope could open a new front in the stalled counter-offensive.
Ukrainian troops involved in the operation said that its forces had secured three positions on the eastern bank of the river that divides much of Ukraine.
The build-up of Ukrainian forces on the river bank has alarmed Russian officials.
Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of Ukraine’s Kherson region, on Wednesday became the first to openly admit that Ukraine was advancing in an unlikely operation to outflank Russian forces. Mr Saldo said “small groups” of Ukrainian soldiers had established positions, insisting that Russia was raining down “fiery hell” on the units.
Moscow said it had sent in more troops to stop them. The new positions centre on the village of Krynky on the bank of the Dnipro, and around 18 miles northeast of the city of Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured almost exactly a year ago.
Russian and Ukrainian forces have been entrenched on opposite sides of the Dnipro river since Moscow withdrew from the western part of Ukraine’s Kherson region last November.
A Ukrainian soldier who crossed to the eastern bank at the beginning of November said Ukrainian forces were outnumbered after crossing on to the eastern banks.
“For every fighter we have there, they have 10,” the soldier, 32, who was evacuated due to a concussion, told the Wall Street Journal. “And we’re sitting in trenches unable to even stick our heads out.”
Troops also said armoured personnel carriers had crossed the Dnipro to join the attack. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers posted videos showing Russian shells hitting houses in Krynky.
“They are hiding in hedges, in houses,” Russian military analyst Boris Rozhin said.
Mr Saldo, the Russian-installed official, said the average lifespan of a Ukrainian soldier on the left bank is a little more than two days.
Citing what he said was first-hand information from Russia’s ‘Dnepr’ military grouping, Mr Saldo said troops had pinned the Ukrainians down, predicting they would be killed.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, described the frontline as “fairly fluid” and said Kyiv’s forces had been putting Russian troops under pressure along the river.
“The pushback from our side is taking place on a line from three to eight kilometres along the entire bank from the water’s edge,” she said. “For now, we will ask for informational silence ... which would allow us to report later on great successes,” she added in televised comments.
It comes after Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said troops had secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.
He said Ukrainian forces had managed to cross the river and dig in “against all odds.” Mr Yermak, said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which it launched in June, was “developing” and that Kyiv knew “how to achieve victory”.
Russia’s military said last week its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to forge a bridgehead on the eastern bank and nearby islands, inflicting heavy losses.
The Dnipro, Europe’s fourth-longest river and a historic trading route, has become a key front since Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces back over its banks in the south in 2022.
The river winds the length of the country from north to south, eventually flowing into the Black Sea from the Kherson region, where it separates the two armies.
While Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson city last November was a shock defeat for the Kremlin, Russian forces on the opposing bank still control swathes of territory and shell towns and villages they retreated from.