Russian-Occupied Kherson Cut Off as Ukraine Counter-Attacks, Says Britain

Smoke rises behind vessels on the Dnipro River during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Smoke rises behind vessels on the Dnipro River during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 24, 2022. (Reuters)
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Russian-Occupied Kherson Cut Off as Ukraine Counter-Attacks, Says Britain

Smoke rises behind vessels on the Dnipro River during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Smoke rises behind vessels on the Dnipro River during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russia-controlled city of Kherson, Ukraine July 24, 2022. (Reuters)

A Ukrainian counter-offensive has virtually cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson and left thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnipro River "highly vulnerable", British defense and intelligence officials said on Thursday.

Ukraine has made clear it intends to recapture Kherson, which fell to Russia in the early days of the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb 24.

Britain's Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces have probably established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River, and had used new, long-range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges crossing the Dnipro.

"Russia's 49th Army, stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, now looks highly vulnerable," it said in a regular intelligence bulletin on Twitter, adding that Kherson was virtually cut off from the other territories occupied by Russia.

"Its loss would severely undermine Russia's attempts to paint the occupation as a success."

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, earlier tweeted that Russia was concentrating "the maximum number of troops" in the direction of the Kherson but gave no details.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was conducting a "massive redeployment" of forces from the east to the south in what amounted to a strategic shift from attack to defense.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine would rebuild the Antonivskyi bridge over the Dnipro and other crossings in the region.

"We are doing everything to ensure that the occupying forces do not have any logistical opportunities in our country," he said in a Wednesday evening address.

Russian officials had earlier said they would turn instead to pontoon bridges and ferries to get forces across the river.

Russian-backed forces on Wednesday said they had captured the Soviet-era coal-fired Vuhlehirsk power plant, Ukraine's second-largest, in what was Moscow's first significant gain in more than three weeks.

Diplomacy

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Moscow calls a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" its neighbor. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he planned a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - the first between the two diplomats since before the start of the war.

The call in the coming days would not be "a negotiation about Ukraine," Blinken said at a news conference, restating Washington's position that any talks on ending the war must be between Kyiv and Moscow.

Russia has received no formal request from Washington about a phone call between Blinken and Lavrov, TASS news agency reported.

The United States has made "a substantial offer" to Russia for it to release US citizens WNBA star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, Blinken said, without giving details of what the United States was offering in return.

Blinken said he would press Lavrov to respond to the offer.

A source familiar with the situation confirmed a CNN report that Washington was willing to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25 year-prison sentence in the United States, as part of a deal.

Aside from discussing Americans detained by Russia, Blinken said he would raise with Lavrov the tentative deal on grain exports reached last week between Russia, the United States, Turkey and Ukraine.

Russia reduced gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in an energy stand-off with the European Union. It has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since invading, but on Friday agreed to allow deliveries through the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosphorus Strait and on to global markets.

The deal was almost immediately thrown into doubt when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukraine's largest port, on Saturday, just 12 hours after the deal was signed.

Before the invasion and subsequent sanctions, Russia and Ukraine accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports.



Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
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Evacuations and Call for Aid as Typhoon Usagi Approaches Philippines

A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)
A villager on a wooden boat paddles on a flooded village caused by Typhoon Toraji in Tuguegarao city, Cagayan city, Philippines, 13 November 2024. (EPA)

The Philippines ordered evacuations Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Usagi's arrival, as the UN's disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after recent storms killed more than 150 people.

The national weather service said Usagi -- the archipelago's fifth major storm in three weeks -- would likely make landfall Thursday in Cagayan province on the northeast tip of main island Luzon.

Provincial civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said mayors had been ordered to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas, by force if necessary, as the 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour typhoon bears down on the country.

"Under (emergency protocols), all the mayors must implement the forced evacuation, especially for susceptible areas," he told AFP, adding as many as 40,000 people in the province lived in hazard-prone areas.

The area is set to be soaked in "intense to torrential" rain on Thursday and Friday, which can trigger floods and landslides with the ground still sodden from recent downpours, state weather forecaster Christopher Perez told reporters.

He urged residents of coastal areas to move inland due to the threat of storm surges and giant coastal waves up to three meters (nine feet) high, with shipping also facing the peril of 8–10-meter waves.

A sixth tropical storm, Man-yi, is expected to strengthen into a typhoon before hitting the center of the country as early as Friday, Perez said.

With more than 700,000 people forced out of their homes, the successive storms have taken a toll on the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday.

About 210,000 of those most affected by recent flooding need support for "critical lifesaving and protection efforts over the next three months", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.

"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."

The initiative "will help us mobilize the capacities and resources of the humanitarian community to better support government institutions at national, regional and local levels," Gonzalez added.

More than 28,000 people displaced by recent storms are still living in evacuation centers operated by local governments, the country's civil defense office said in its latest tally.

Government crews were still working to restore downed power and communication lines and clearing debris from roads.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.

A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.