Ukrainian forces have made an attempt to cross the Dnieper River dividing liberated and occupied Kherson, in a potential breach of what has for months served as the frontline in the south of Ukraine. Russian military bloggers reported that up to 7 boats, each carrying 6 to 7 people, had landed near the village of Kozachi Laheri, east of Kherson, and broke through Russian defensive lines.
It was claimed that the Ukrainian soldiers had advanced up to 800 metres after getting to the riverbank, though it appeared Russian forces had some success in fighting them back. The Russian-imposed head of the occupied part of the Kherson oblast, Vladimir Saldo, claimed the Ukrainian raid had been repelled.
Ukraine has claimed it is enjoying “partial success” on the southern front, while successfully defending against a Russian push in the east, where the situation is described as “complex, but controlled”. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said that Ukrainian offensive actions continue in the Bakhmut direction, where Russian forces “make constant assaults to try to restore lost positions”.
499 children have been killed and 1,095 injured in Ukraine during the course of the war so far, according to the latest figures released by the office of the prosecutor general of Ukraine.
The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine claimed to have downed a Russian helicopter.
Ukrainian officials accused the Kremlin’s forces of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles – the first one to draw crews to the scene and the second one to wound or kill them. The strikes on Monday evening in the downtown district of the city of Pokrovsk killed 9 people and wounded more than 80 others, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. According to Ukrainian authorities, 1 of those killed was an emergency official, and most of those wounded were police officers, emergency workers and soldiers who rushed to assist residents.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko put the number of wounded at 81, including 39 civilians, 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel. Two children were among those injured.