Ukraine claims Russia moving ‘combat-ready’ units away from Kherson region

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine’s deputy defense minister claimed on Sunday that Russia is moving its more “combat-ready” units away from the Kherson region.

“Therefore, the purpose of undermining the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant by the Russians becomes obvious … The command of the Russian occupying forces decided to ‘narrow’ the possible geography of active actions of the Armed Forces,” Hanna Maliar said in a statement on Telegram, in reference to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Maliar claimed that Russia decided on the maneuver “taking into account their own losses and limited reserves” and the “inability to restrain the Ukrainian offensive in various directions.”

“The undermining of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was apparently carried out with the aim of preventing an offensive by the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson direction and releasing the necessary reserves for their transfer to the Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut directions,” Maliar further claimed.

She also claimed that Russia is trying to divert part of the Ukrainian military and its resources to eliminate the consequences of the Kakhovka dam explosion.

Maliar’s comments came a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the Ukrainian army is taking “appropriate counteroffensive and defensive actions” against Russia on the front line.

On the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed Ukraine continued "unsuccessful attempts" to conduct offensive actions in the directions of South Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut.

Early this week, an emergency was declared on both sides of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine's Kherson region after it burst – one side is controlled by Russia and the other by Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the blast, which destroyed part of the dam that supplied water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.