“We prepared for the vote, we wanted to hold a referendum in the near future, but because of all the events that have happened now, I think for now we will stop,” he said, in a sign that Russia is losing its grip on southern Ukraine. Hours later, he released a video denying that Russian authorities had halted efforts for a long-planned referendum to bring the region under Kremlin control.
Ukrainian forces are advancing
While Ukraine remained largely silent on operations in the south, Western analysts said Kyiv had managed to raise its bridgehead over the Inhulets River near Kherson. Russian airstrikes in Sukhy Stavok, Bezimenne and Kostromka around the safe areas “may indicate that Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 12 kilometers southeast of the bridgehead,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), based in the USA. Tank. After Ukrainian forces liberated Vysokopilya, there were reports of Russian attacks on the settlements of Olhyne, Potomkyne, Doryanka and Novovoznesenske nearby, suggesting that Moscow forces had left the area. Pro-Russian sources said the Ukrainian offensive is taking place in at least five directions east and west of Vysokopilya, near the Ukrainian bridgehead, near Snykhurivka about 37 miles east of Mykolayiv, and northwest and west of Kherson. “Ukrainian forces have made significant enough progress to start eliciting more pragmatic commentary from Russian millibloggers, who until now have heeded the Kremlin’s upbeat rhetoric too closely,” ISW added.
