Tension and military buildup grows in Kherson; Chechen leader admits high losses among unit in Ukraine

Early on Friday, the Ukrainian military provided a summary of battlefield action in Kherson, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been preparing for weeks for what could be one of the most consequential battles of the war.

Kherson, one of four partially occupied provinces that Russia proclaimed annexed last month, controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed leader of Crimea, wrote on the Telegram messaging service that the work to move Kherson residents to regions of Russia had been completed.

The Ukrainian military said in a Facebook post that its forces in Kherson had killed 44 Russian servicemen in 24 hours, and destroyed an ammunition depot and a hangar with equipment. However, Ukrainian officials have said tough terrain and bad weather had held up their main advance in Kherson.

Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions along the line of contact and built fortifications, particularly on the east bank of the Dnipro, the Ukrainian military said. Russian forces were enduring shortages of material and equipment, including warm clothing, prompting a rise in theft in Russian-occupied areas, it added.

Chechen leader Kadyrov said 23 of his fighters were killed and 58 others wounded in artillery shelling by Ukraine.

In a rare acknowledgment of battlefield woes in Ukraine, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has admitted to high losses in his ranks after artillery shelling by Kyiv’s troops.

“At the beginning of this week, one of the Chechen units was shelled in the Kherson region,” Kadyrov, a prominent ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ruler of the Chechen Republic, said on Telegram late on Thursday.

The Kremlin ally rarely reveals defeats but admitted that losses among his fighters, who are supporting Russia, were “big on that day”.

Ukrainian sources had reported earlier this week that a Chechen unit in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson had given away its location via photos on social networks, which led to it being hit by artillery fire.

Kadyrov’s comments were unusual given that pro-Moscow forces have rarely admitted to major battlefield losses, and Russian officials do not publish figures on their own casualties.

The Chechen leader also called on his compatriots to be mobilised for the war in Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the Russian war more than eight months ago, Kadyrov has distinguished himself as one of the fiercest supporters of the conflict and has also sent his own units into Ukraine.

But he has regularly criticised the Russian army leadership – often in conjunction with the financier of the mercenary Wagner units, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for being too soft. Kadyrov has also called for the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared his country’s fight against Russia with the Nazi resistance in World War II, saying Moscow is pursuing the same goals as Nazism once did.

“The form of evil has changed, but the essence is unchanged,” Zelenskyy said in a video message broadcast in Kyiv on Thursday night.

Russia, he said, had gone from neighbour to aggressor to terrorist – and was guilty of war crimes.

SOURCE: News Agencies