Local residents in the Kherson region continued to struggle with rising floodwaters one day after a critical hydroelectric dam was breached by as-yet-unknown causes. “Everything is submerged in water: all the furniture, the fridge, food … everything is floating,” one 53-year-old resident of Kherson City, the Ukrainian-held regional capital, told Reuters. The Nova Kakhovka dam,…

Moscow and Kyiv are trading blame over the partial destruction of a hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River, which has separated the warring sides since last November. The dam was breached on the morning of June 6, causing widespread flooding in the Kherson region and prompting fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy…

Ukrainian forces are staging regular attacks on the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region, according to a top Ukrainian regional official. “Our military visit the left [eastern] bank very often, conducting raids,” Yuriy Sobolevskiy, deputy head of Kherson’s Kyiv-appointed regional administration, said in televised comments on April 25. “The Ukrainian…

Following the Russian withdrawal from the right (northwestern) bank of the Dnipro River in the southern Kherson region, the focus of fighting has shifted eastward, according to both Russian and Ukrainian sources.  Fighting is reportedly heaviest in the eastern Donetsk area, which together with Luhansk comprises the Russian-speaking Donbas region. In late September, Russia formally…

Following last week’s Russian withdrawal from the city of Kherson, Kyiv has accused Moscow’s forces and their local allies of having committed numerous “war crimes” before their departure. Pro-Russian officials, for their part, claim that Ukrainian forces, which entered Kherson over the weekend, were committing “extrajudicial reprisals” against pro-Russian residents of the city. On Nov….

MOSCOW—The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian forces’ withdrawal from Kherson would not change the status of the region, which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia after moving to annex it from Ukraine. Russia claimed Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions after holding what it called referendums in September—votes that were denounced by Kyiv and…

Russia has fully withdrawn its forces from the west bank of the Dnipro River, including the strategic city of Kherson, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. As Moscow’s troops left, Ukrainian soldiers began to move in and were greeted by jubilant civilians, according to reports and video from various Western media outlets including Reuters, AP,…

Russia has begun withdrawing its forces from the city of Kherson to the southern bank of the Dnieper River, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Nov. 10. Defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced the withdrawal decision one day earlier, based on an assessment by Russia’s Gen. Sergey Surovikin. Surovikin was appointed by Moscow last month to…

Russian forces and their local allies consolidated their positions in Kherson on Oct. 26, dispelling rumors of an imminent Russian withdrawal from the strategic region. “The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there [in Kherson],” Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an evening address on Oct. 25. Thousands of civilians in…

Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces this week centered largely around the southern region of Kherson, where both sides claim to have registered significant gains. On Oct. 20, the Ukrainian military–usually tight-lipped about ongoing operations–said dozens of Russian troops had been killed and several Russian tanks destroyed in its latest attempt to breach Russian defenses…