Ukraine Claims Progress In Recapturing Towns As Counteroffensive In Kherson Continues

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said 88 settlements in the southern Kherson region and 551 settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv region have been “de-occupied,” while the Ukrainian forces' counteroffensive in the Kherson region moves ahead.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Zelenskiy’s office, reported the data on October 21 on Telegram, broadcasting results since the Ukrainian military launched the counteroffensive several weeks ago in the direction of Kherson and before that in the direction of Kharkiv.

Zelenskiy added in his nightly video address that Ukrainian forces had shown “good results” in capturing Russian arms in Kherson.

Since early October, Ukrainian forces have captured more than 30 Russian armored vehicles, thousands of projectiles for tanks, and three artillery guns that will "help liberate our land," he added.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Russia has sent in thousands of recently mobilized troops to reinforce the defense of Kherson, the Ukrainian General Staff said earlier on October 21.

"Up to 2,000 mobilized Russians arrived in the temporarily captured Kherson region to replenish losses and strengthen units on the contact line," the General Staff said in a statement.

"At the same time, the occupation authorities issued an order to prepare for the evacuation of the so-called 'banking institutions' and Russian medical workers and teachers," the statement said.

Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces in Kherson back east across the Dnieper River, which bisects the country. Russian soldiers on the western bank, where the city of Kherson is located, are reportedly close to being cut off from supply lines and reinforcements.

Ukraine has imposed an information blackout from the Kherson front, but Russian General Sergei Surovikin said this week that the situation in Kherson was "already difficult."

Ukrainian strikes made the Antonivskiy Bridge in the city of Kherson impassable, prompting Russian authorities to set up ferry crossings and pontoon bridges to relocate civilians and transport supplies.

Russian-installed officials are trying to evacuate up to 60,000 people from Kherson and to allow the military to build fortifications.

“The situation is really difficult,” the deputy head of Kherson’s Kremlin-installed regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, said in a video on Telegram. “Today we are preparing the city of Kherson as a fortress for defense and are ready to defend to the last.”

SEE ALSO: Ethnic Cleansing? Fear? Damage Control? Why Russia Really Wants To Get Ukrainians Out Of Kherson

Other Kremlin-installed officials said Ukrainian shelling of a Dnieper River ferry crossing killed two journalists working for a local TV station that the Russians set up under occupation. At least two other people were reported killed and 13 wounded.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern operational command, confirmed that the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskiy Bridge but said the strike took place during an overnight curfew that Russian-installed officials put in place to avoid civilian casualties.

Zelenskiy again on October 21 urged the West to warn Russia not to blow up a dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper River, as this could flood settlements toward Kherson.

Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir, and were planning to blow it up.

"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said in his nightly address.

Russia has accused Kyiv of planning to destroy the dam. Ukrainian officials have called this a sign that Moscow might blow it up and blame Ukraine in a so-called false-flag operation. Neither side produced evidence to back up their allegations.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and BBC