Daily Military update – June 8, 2022

UAF ground gains in south confirmed, offensive may still be in progress

A Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) counter-offensive has managed limited ground gains in the southern sector, according to findings published by British and US analytical agencies on Tuesday.

A June 8 situation estimate made public by the British Defense Ministry confirmed widespread reports from multiple Ukrainian information sources that UAF units had crossed the Inhulets River in the Kherson region at multiple locations, and were moving south against limited opposition.

The reports, originating in Ukrainian social media over the weekend and followed up by independent Ukrainian news platforms, said UAF units had established a bridgehead over the river in and around the village Davidiv Brod, and that UAF reconnaissance patrols had driven up to 15 km south against weak RF resistance before reaching the villages of Kostroma and Bruskynske.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) released a June 8 analysis of the southern sector, saying in part “Ukrainian forces have recently had some success counterattacking in the southwestern Kherson region, including re-establishing positions on the eastern bank of the Inhulets River.”

Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) on June 8 offered no specifics about UAF advances in the southern sector, noting only that RF forces were conducting “a positional defense”, and shelling UAF positions, and civilian homes and businesses in and around the villages Dolina, Tavriska, Kul’baikino, Bila Krinitsia, Trudoliubivka, Blahodatne, Luch and Topoline.

The pro-Russia Readovka Telegram news platform said the UAF was trying to advance in the southern sector with the goal of capturing Kherson, but claimed the attacks failed after suffering losses to RF artillery. According to Readovka, RF units were holding their positions at all locations.

Igor Girkin, a RF-based military commentator and former commander in forces fighting against the UAF in Donbas, in a June 8 social media comment said the UAF was advancing on Kherson from two directions, from the north-west along the M-14 highway, and from the north-west via the villages Snehurivka and Yurivka. He claimed the RF high command was struggling to stop the attacks.

According to a June 8 public announcement from the Zaporizhzhia regional defense command, RF units manning road checkpoints had abandoned them and were moving southward towards the Kherson region. A June 6 statement from the Mykolaiv mayor’s office, similarly, said that RF units manning road checkpoints outside the occupied city Melitopol had quit them, and driven towards Kherson.

A June 8 Facebook post from the Norman Brigade, a British-Canadian-Australian volunteer unit fighting in Zaporizhia and Kherson southern sectors, showed images of UAF troops in BTR armored personnel carriers and tanks moving south.

Another social media video, seemingly recorded by motorists in the Zaporizhzhia region the same day, purported to show showed a UAF train carrying tanks, armored personnel carriers, air defense systems and military trucks heading toward the Kherson sector.

Occupied by the RF in the second week of the war, Kherson is a major industrial center. Its bridge across the giant Dnipro has made the city a critical logistics hub for the RF, and a bottleneck for RF military supplies moving to combat units operating in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

RF occupying authorities have repeatedly declared Kherson will remain under Moscow’s control indefinitely and that, in coming months, a referendum is planned for the region either to declare itself an independent state, or to apply to become a part of the Russian Federation.

Kherson since RF occupation has seen repeated partisan attacks, including at least two assassinations of local officials cooperating with RF authorities. Kherson residents have protested repeatedly against RF rule.

On June 8 posters appeared in Kherson, according to news reports, warning people cooperating with RF authorities that they could be assassinated as traitors.