War in Ukraine (2024)

Kherson

Kherson is a major city in southern Ukraine that had has been captured by both sides during the duration of the ongoing war. And has seen some of the most intense fighting of the entire war. And the Ukrainian forced have been holding it since of 2023 and have no plans to do offensives or retreat from the city and neither have the Russians. However the city is separated by the massive Dnieper river. And there are only a few select bridges that are heavily fortified by Ukrainian troops.

At the start of the invasion, Russian troops quickly maneuvered through southern Ukraine and was able to cross the Dnieper river and take control of the city for a fairly long time and they had a strong foothold around the city by having a strong presence with control of the terrain around them aswell. Which made it extremely difficult for the defending Ukrainian forces to recapture any part of the city. However the Ukrainian troops were able to contain further Russian attacks. And inflicted major casualties to the opposing side.

The Russians had setup strong defences around the outskirts of the city. And the Ukrainian began to have some struggles without the necessary reinforcements needed to operate the counter offensive properly. However by late 2022, the important, strong  reinforcements arrived and there was roughly 30,000 Ukrainian troops while the Russians had 40,000 men aswell. And the counter offensive began. With strong tanks and supplied weapons and ammunition from the western government, they were able to push back the Russian troops even past their defensive line and Russian airstrikes tried to weaken the Ukrainian momentum, however it had little to no effect at all. And knowing the danger of encirclement they decided to withdraw from Kherson back across the Dnieper river through bridges and then blew them up to prevent further attacks. Ukrainian troops re-entered Kherson for the first time in 8 months and their civilians remaining in the city cheered to be liberated from the aggressor. This was an incredible victory for the UAF and was a huge blow to Russian morale. But still the war was not won till this day Russia still attempts to retake the city but to no avail. And the war of attrition as of the time writing this is slowly easing out and the frontlines are moving again a little faster. Kherson was the first major victory for Ukraine except for Kyiv and Kharkiv but still they far from safe. The Russians still have attempted to retake the city but to no avail. And Ukrainian resistance remains strong to this day. And the frontline has remained in a stalemate for over a year and has remained in the Dnieper river line. Still no reports have come further to a solid conclusion for Kherson, only time will tell the future of Kherson and Ukraine.