FRONT LINES NORTH OF KHERSON, Ukraine
\nUkrainian troops are holding out against repeated attacks by Russian forces in two eastern towns while those at the southern front are poised to battle for the strategic Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Wednesday evening video address that there would be good news from the front but he gave no details.
\nHe did not mention what was happening in Kherson, which officials and military analysts have predicted will be one of the most consequential battles of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine eight months ago.
\nThe most severe fighting in eastern Ukraine was taking place near Avdiivka, outside Donetsk, and Bakhmut, Zelensky said.
\n\u201cThis is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident. Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes,\u201d he said.
\nRussian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
\nThe looming battle for Kherson city at the mouth of the Dnipro River will determine whether Ukraine can loosen Russia\u2019s grip on the south.
\nFresh recruits inserted
\nWhile much of the front line remains off limits to journalists, at one section of the front north of the Russian-occupied pocket on the west bank of the Dnipro, Ukrainian soldiers said Russian shelling was stepping up again after having tailed off in recent weeks.
\nRadio intercepts indicated freshly mobilized recruits had been sent to the front and Russian forces were firmly dug in.
\n\u201cThey have good defensive lines with deep trenches, and they are sitting deep underground,\u201d said Vitalii, a Ukrainian soldier squatting in a weed-choked irrigation canal, concealed from any prowling enemy drones by overhanging trees.
\nUkrainian forces advanced along the Dnipro River in a dramatic push in the south at the start of this month, but progress appears to have slowed. Russia has been evacuating civilians on the west bank but says it has no plans to pull out its troops.
\nOleksii Reznikov, Ukraine\u2019s defense minister, said wet weather and rough terrain were making Kyiv\u2019s counter-offensive in Kherson harder than it was in the northeast, where it pushed Russia back in September.
\nAt the front, intermittent artillery fire echoed from both sides, with towers of smoke rising in the distance.
\nA Ukrainian helicopter gunship swept low over the fields, loosed rockets at the Russian positions and wheeled around spitting flares to distract any heat-seeking anti-aircraft rockets fired at it.
\n\u201cIn this area, they are very active. They shell every day and are digging trenches and preparing for defense,\u201d a unit commander at the front, who asked to be quoted by his nickname, Nikifor, said of the Russians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FRONT LINES NORTH OF KHERSON, Ukraine Ukrainian troops are holding out against repeated attacks by Russian forces in two eastern towns while those at the southern front are poised to battle for the strategic Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Wednesday evening video address that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-292044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n