The Russian military announced that it repelled 5 reconnaissance groups and destroyed many Ukrainian weapons in the past 24 hours.
“Soldiers of the Western combat group detected and eliminated five enemy reconnaissance groups from the 14th and 92nd mechanized brigades and the 103rd territorial defense brigade,” Sergey Zybinsky, developer Russia’s Western combat group, announced on April 2.
Zybinsky said that fire from the Giatsint artillery prevented Ukrainian forces from rotating in frontline positions near the settlement of Dvurechnoye.
According to the spokesman, a Russian reconnaissance team spotted an enemy mortar team near the settlement of Gatische. An attack by the Grad multiple rocket launchers eliminated a mortar. An Uragan multiple-launch rocket system continued to destroy a Ukrainian D-20 howitzer at a distance of 25km.
On the same day, a spokesman for the Kherson emergency service confirmed that the Russian armed forces destroyed two Ukrainian artillery pieces on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson. The attacks cost Ukraine a number of troops and equipment.
“Yesterday, a 2S3 Akatsiya howitzer with ammunition was destroyed in the settlement of Mylovoe, 5 servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces were killed. At night, a D-30 howitzer and ammunition were fired. destroyed by artillery fire in the settlement of Kamyshany, four soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces were killed, and three were wounded of varying severity,” the source said.
On the night of April 2, Ukrainian artillery fired 38 shells at the civilian infrastructure of four settlements on the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, a Kherson administration official, Russia has carried out more than 60 attacks on Kherson in the past 24 hours.
“The enemy launched 60 attacks in the last 24 hours, firing 290 rounds. Russian planes, Grad multiple launch rocket systems, and artillery opened fire on Kherson. The enemy shelled the citadel. Kherson Street six times. 26 rounds hit residential areas of the city, including private buildings and apartment buildings,” the Kherson official added.
Kherson city is located in Kherson province – one of four provinces in Ukraine that Russia announced it annexed last year after holding a referendum. Russia also vowed to defend these territories at all costs.
Russia has controlled most of Kherson province in southern Ukraine since March last year. However, before the strong counterattack of Ukrainian forces, in November, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the withdrawal of troops from the city of Kherson, moving forces and equipment from the west bank to the east bank of the Dnieper River.
Kherson is strategically significant for both Russia and Ukraine because of its important location on the Dnieper River, near the mouth of the Black Sea, and as an industrial center with a large river and port.
For Russia, if Kherson is kept, this land will create a springboard for Russia to enter Odesa and Mykolaiv. From there, Russia could cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, turning Ukraine into a landlocked country. In addition, control of Kherson also allows Moscow to build a land corridor to Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region, home to a major Russian military base.
