Ukrainian troops are “gaining ground” on the eastern bank of the Dnieper

Ukrainian troops carried out a “series of successful operations” on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River in the Russian-held part of its territory Peninsula and they created several bridgeheads, as the Kiev army announced today.

In a statement on their Facebook page, Ukrainian marines said they were continuing operations on the eastern side of the river. THE Russia admitted for the first time this week that Ukrainian troops have crossed the river.

“Ukrainian defense forces carried out a series of successful actions on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River” in the Kherson region (south), the command of the Ukrainian marine unit said.

The Ukrainian army liberated the city of Kherson and the area around it on the west bank of the Dnieper in November 2022. The river became the dividing line for most of the southern front.

Crossing the Dnieper and moving heavy military equipment and supplies across would allow Ukrainian troops to open a new line of attack in the south on the most direct land route to Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.

Russia and Ukraine state that they have inflicted heavy casualties on each other during operations in the area.

Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said this week that Ukrainian troops are working to “demilitarize” Crimea and have covered 70 percent of the distance.

According to Ukrainian military bloggers, Ukrainian forces crossed the Dnieper in small groups over the summer to create a bridgehead around a railway bridge near Kherson and then tried to expand their presence to nearby villages on the east bank, including Krinki.

The advance in the Kherson region comes after months of Ukrainian counter-offensive operations in the southeast and south that have not yielded the major breakthrough many Ukrainians wanted. Russian forces, which occupy about 17 percent of Ukraine, are again on the offensive in the east in areas such as the Kiev-held city of Avdiivka and the area near the Russian-held city of Bakhmut.

The Ukrainian military said in its daily briefing that fighting was raging along the entire front line from south to east, reporting 72 clashes in the past 24 hours.