"Kherson has been one of the toughest battlefields for the Ukrainians, with slower progress when compared with Ukraine’s breakout offensive around the country’s second largest city of Kharkiv, in the northeast, that began last month."
The Ukrainians have said from early on that this is deliberate and will take time. They attracted Russian forces to Kherson to leave Kharkiv vulnerable. They are keeping them busy in Kherson so they can't operate elsewhere.
But Kherson is also a trap, because west of the Dnieper, Russian forces are bogged down and unable to resupply themselves. As usual, General Putin has told them not to retreat. So this is a game of being patient as winter approaches and waiting for the Russians to surrender due to lack of resources. This pocket has (or at least had) 30k Russians in it. It takes a lot of resources to keep an army that size provided for, when the bridges across the Dnieper are all damaged.
The overnight gain of 40km is a sign that the plan is working. Russian strength is eroding fast. If General Putin loses 30k of his soldiers, I reckon he's in far bigger trouble even than he is now.
The question: will he lose Luhansk or Kherson oblast first? My bet is the former. But General Putin is such a calamitous strategist, who knows? He might as well be a violin, the way the Ukrainian generals are playing him. It's one encirclement after another.
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