“The battle for Kherson could become a turning point in the Ukraine war”

Ukraine says it launched a counter-offensive in southern Ukraine in mid-July. The aim is to reconquer the Cherson region with the city of the same name north of the Crimea. The area will “definitely be liberated by September,” said Serhiy Chlan of the Kherson military administration, which is loyal to Kyiv, in a television interview on Sunday.

But for military adviser Franz-Stefan Gady, it is too early to speak of a counter-offensive: “The counter-offensive has not yet begun, rather the preparations for it.”

“What we are seeing at the moment are local attacks by the Ukrainian army on individual Russian units or tactical targets,” said the military expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in a phone call to the Tagesspiegel. But: “For Ukraine, the battle for Cherson could become a turning point in the war against Russia.”