Battle of Kherson
In the early hours of 24 February, a large Russian force, estimated by Ukrainian military expert Serhii Hrabskyi to be 35,000 men strong, invaded Kherson Oblast from Crimea.[7][8] Fighting was soon reported in Chonhar, on the border with Crimea, and residents of the town of Chaplynka in southern Kherson Oblast observed columns of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and multiple rocket launchers moving in the direction of Nova Kakhovka.[4][3] At 3:00 p.m., a company of territorial defense fighters began moving towards the road bridge to force the Russian paratroopers out and open a path for the encircled 59th Brigade to withdraw over the Dnieper.[11] Around midnight, the tank battalion of the 59th Brigade, which had remained positioned at the bridge, was met with a massive Russian bombardment involving fighter planes, Ka-52 attack helicopters, FAB-500 bombs, mortars and artillery.[4][3] In the morning, a CNN team visited the Antonivka Road Bridge in the aftermath of the battle and found disabled military vehicles, dead soldiers, and craters caused by shelling.[17][better source needed] A Ukrainian official, Anton Herashchenko, published footage of a destroyed column of Russian military vehicles near Radensk and Oleshky, just south of Kherson.Pavel Filatyev, a former member of Russia's 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment who wrote a book on his experience in the war, compared the scene to paintings of barbarians sacking Rome, as "savage" Russian soldiers looted valuable goods and ate all the food they could find.[43][44] A senior US defense official claimed that the Russian forces no longer had full control of Kherson as the Ukrainians fought "fiercely" to recover the city.[49] Ukrainian officials alleged that beginning on 27 February, Russian forces began moving civilians from nearby villages towards Kherson, attempting to use them as human shields.[15] In May 2022, Valentyna Romanova, a writer for the European Consortium for Political Research, published that Ukraine sustained 300 military casualties during the battle, with the entire Ukrainian defense force at Kherson having been injured or killed during the fighting.Merkx stated that Russia planned and attempted to execute an amphibious landing assault on the "Kherson-Mykolaiv-Odesa axis", but was stopped by the Ukrainian coastal defenses in the early stages of the invasion.[53] On 1 April 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the head of the Security Service of Ukraine's Kherson regional branch and a general as traitors.[57] On 4 March, there was a measured spike in bots promoting the pro-Ukrainian hashtag #IStandWithUkraine, which the Australian University of Adelaide believed to have been Ukrainian authorities countering Russian propaganda.
2022 Kherson counteroffensiveLiberation of Khersonsouthern frontRussian invasion of UkraineKhersonRussiaUkraine42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division56th Guards Air Assault Regiment59th Motorized Brigade80th Air Assault BrigadeLahutaKolykhaievTimelineFebruary – April 2022April – August 2022August – November 2022November 2022 – June 2023June – August 2023September – November 2023December 2023 – March 2024April – July 2024August – December 2024January 2025 – presentPreludeCasualtiesTerritorial controlList of engagementsWar crimesAttacks on civiliansEconomic impactPeace negotiationsCollaboration with RussiaRussian emigrationNuclear riskHumanitarian impactsRussian annexationTreatment of prisoners of warRussian invasion of Ukraine (2022)Northern frontAntonov AirportChernobylHostomelKyiv strikesshopping centre bombingRussian Kyiv convoymassacrerefugee column shellingMakarivMoshchunKozarovytska DamBrovarySlavutychBorodiankaammonia leakChernihivChernihiv strikes3 March 2022 bombing16 March 2022 breadline attackLebedynNorthern Ukraine skirmishesEastern frontMariupolhospital airstriketheatre airstrikeart school bombing1st KharkivKharkiv strikesFebruary cluster bombinggovernment building airstrikeMarch cluster bombingApril cluster bombingdormitories missile strikeChuhuiv Air BaseVolnovakhaStara KrasniankaMarch 2022 attackJune 2022 attackSeptember 2022 attackRubizhnePopasnaMarinkarailway station attackBattle of DonbasSiverskyi Donetsschool bombingSievierodonetskLysychanskChasiv Yar strikeOlenivka massacreBakhmutSoledarVuhledarMakiivka2nd KharkivKupianskcivilian convoy shelling2nd LymanLuhansk Oblast campaignVelyka NovosilkaRussian Winter OffensiveKherson strikesMelitopolMykolaivbombing7 March 2022 military quarters attackcluster bombing18 March 2022 military quarters attackChornobaivkaEnerhodarZaporizhzhia NPPVoznesenskBerdianskHuliaipoleDavydiv BridCrimeaNovofedorivka1st Crimean Bridge1st Sevastopol Naval BaseKherson counteroffensiveNova KakhovkaDnieperZaporizhzhiacivilian convoy attackresidential building airstrikeIvano-Frankivsk