Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russian soldiers to run for their lives as the Ukrainian military launches an offensive to retake Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine.
Summary
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russian soldiers to run for their lives as the Ukrainian military launches an offensive to retake Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine.
- Supported by Western military aid, the Ukrainian counteroffensive seeks to break the weeks-long relative stalemate and retake the critical Kherson region just north of Russian-annexed Crimea.
- Explosions and attacks on ammunition depots and bridges are reportedly underway across the Kherson region.
- The U.S. believes the counteroffensive gives Ukraine “a good chance” to reclaim territory, two Defense Department officials briefed POLITICO.
- The counteroffensive comes after successful Ukrainian attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet and Russian-occupied territory.
- Russia is turning up the pressure on Europe. France accused Russia of using energy supplies as “a weapon of war” after Moscow cut energy supplies to France and Germany. Russia’s shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has sent energy costs soaring across the continent.
- On Tuesday, the Vatican acknowledged for the first time that Russia was the aggressor in the conflict after Ukraine protested the Pope’s comments calling murdered Russian nationalist Darya Dugina an “innocent” victim of war.
- The New York Times noted Ukraine claims to have broken through Russian positions in several areas throughout the Kherson region that could signal the beginning of a “broad and coordinated counteroffensive.”
- BBC News reported the Russian-appointed leader of occupied Kherson appears to have fled 500 miles back to Russia ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
- The Washington Post reported that Ukrainian forces are using decoys of U.S. advanced rocket systems to trick the Russians into wasting expensive cruise missiles. The operation has been so successful the Russians are now claiming to have bombed more HIMARS rocket systems than the U.S. has even sent.
- National Review rounded up important Ukraine news that may have slipped off the radar as Ukraine news “can disappear from U.S. media headlines for weeks at a time” and suggested the media’s “intermittent interest” is likely because the Ukraine war is “another example of President Joe Biden talking tough and then generating disappointing results.”
- The Wall Street Journal observed the ultimate objective of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is the large city of Kherson, the regional capital and the largest city to fall to Russian forces in the early days of the conflict.
- The Telegraph reported Ukrainian forces have hit a Russian ferry while targeting a critical bridge on the road to Kherson.
Return to Freespoke 
© Dominic Moore, 2022
