‘FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES’, ZELENSKY TELLS RUSSIANS AS KYIV LAUNCHES COUNTEROFFENSIVE

Tue 30 August 2022:

The Kherson area of southern Ukraine, which is controlled by Russian forces, has “heavy fighting,” in “almost the entire territory, according to the Ukrainian presidency.”

Earlier, as his soldiers launched an offensive near the city of Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with Russian troops to evacuate for their lives, claiming that their country’s armed forces were reclaiming their territory.

Russia, however, said that the assault was a failure. Zelensky promised that Ukrainian troops will pursue the Russian army “to the border” in a late-night speech on Monday.

“If they want to survive, it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home. Ukraine is taking back its own,” Zelensky said.

“Powerful explosions continued throughout the day and throughout the night in Kherson region,” the president’s office said in a morning update.

Oleksiy Arestovych, Zelensky’s senior adviser, said that the offensive in the Kherson region has led to the Russian defences being “broken through in a few hours”. He further informed that Ukrainian forces were shelling ferries that Russia was using to supply a pocket of territory on the west bank of the Dnipro river.

Britain has also said that Ukrainian forces have increased “artillery fire in front line sectors across southern Ukraine” and their “long-range precision strikes” were disrupting Russian resupplies.

Tuesday blasts in the Kherson area were reported by the public radio Suspilne in Ukraine. Social media posts about gunfire and explosions were posted by locals, but they noted that it was unclear who was firing.

According to the RIA news agency, the Russian defense ministry claimed that Ukrainian troops had tried an offensive in the areas of Mykolaiv and Kherson but had suffered severe losses. It stated that the “enemy’s offensive attempt failed miserably.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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