Ukraine declared this week it had begun a counteroffensive aiming to retake Kherson – the one city Russia holds west of the Dnieper River – prompting a fog of uncertainty to descend on how the effort was progressing, never mind whether it would succeed.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a key adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, stressed there would be “no quick wins” as the attack in the south began.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, western officials said Ukraine had “pushed back” the Russian defenders in “several places”, but insisted it was too soon to name villages taken or distances gained while fighting was ongoing.
The caution may be realistic but it is also telling, Dan Sabbagh explains. This is not, in any sense, a blitzkrieg or a broad front attack, but rather a localised effort to strike at the most obvious strategic vulnerability in the Russian frontline, and to try to demonstrate that Ukraine can drive the Russians back in places before winter sets in.
On Thursday Lorenzo Tondo in Kyiv and Julian Borger reported new details from the counteroffensive. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had retaken more than 1,000 sq km (390 sq miles) of territory and over 20 villages in the south and east.
This is the first time Kyiv has disclosed details of its recent counteroffensive since last week so as not to compromise the operation.
Dan Sabbagh writes that the counteroffensive took Russia, and everyone else, by surprise.
UN calls for demilitarised zone around Zaporizhzhia plant
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, involving the withdrawal of Russian occupying troops and the agreement of Ukrainian forces not to move in, Lorenzo Tondo reported this week from Lviv.
Guterres was addressing a UN security council session on Tuesday, at which he supported the recommendations put forward by Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who led an inspection visit to the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant and this week presented a report to the security council. The report confirmed the presence of Russian soldiers and military equipment at the plant and noted the integrity of the plant had been violated several times.
“We are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place,” Grossi said. “This is why in our report, we are proposing the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone limited to the perimeter and the plant itself.”