Kherson Russians trying to cross key river before peace talks start, says governor

Russian forces are repeatedly trying to seize a foothold across the Dnipro River in Ukraine, dispatching troops on high-casualty missions to gain territory for future peace negotiations, according to the Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region in the country's south.

- Dan Sabbagh

Oleksandr Prokudin said that Russian forces were trying to cross in four different locations to justify their claim to the whole oblast, which is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow says it wants to incorporate.

"Every single day they are trying to cross," Prokudin said while on a working visit to the UK. "We heard from our intelligence that the Russian deputy commander told troops in the area that they had to force the river at any cost, though not all the soldiers are willing to do that."

The governor, who was directly appointed by Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his understanding was that Russian soldiers had been told "they have to make the right [western] bank part of the negotiation" by capturing a village across the river, though so far they had failed to do so.

Casualties had been high, Prokudin continued, and the attackers were killed or injured almost immediately. "The Russians completely understand it is a suicidal mission," he said, adding that documents recovered from soldiers showed that some were recent recruits while others had fought for two years in Ukraine.

Russia largely captured Kherson region in the early stages of the war, which includes territory on both sides of the Dnipro river, but was forced to retreat from the west bank, including the city of Kherson, in November 2022 because it could not supply it.