A day after Ukraine announced that its long-awaited counteroffensive to take back the southern Kherson region had begun, unconfirmed reports have emerged of several villages being liberated—and at least one Russian proxy leader of the region fleeing to safety in Russia.
Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of Kherson, was called out Tuesday for apparently filming a video message proclaiming Ukraine had been defeated from a Marriott hotel in Voronezh, Russia.
“Russia is in Kherson forever,” Stremousov said, claiming the Ukrainian offensive had been derailed on the very same day it began.
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But a Ukrainian activist was quick to point out that Stremousov appeared to have filmed the video more than 500 miles from Kherson—somewhere near the Cathedral of Annunciation in Voronezh, which could be seen in the background, along with the Voronezh reservoir. Social-media users then found photos showing the view from a Marriott hotel that matched the background in the same video where Stremousov declared the Ukrainian offensive “useless.”
Stremousov’s apparent departure from Kherson came after another Russian-appointed official in the region, Alexei Kovalev, was shot dead in front of his home over the weekend, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee. Kovalev, the former deputy head of agriculture in Kherson, had previously been a member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in parliament before switching sides and joining up with Russian occupiers who took over the city in early March.
Another Russian-appointed official in the city survived an assassination attempt Tuesday when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle, Russia’s TASS news agency reported, without naming the official.
The assassination attempt came after Zelensky warned Russian troops in occupied territories that it’s “time to run” if they want to survive Ukraine’s offensive.
While Ukrainian authorities have declined to release any details on their offensive in Kherson, Russian defense officials have gone out of their way to play it down, claiming late Monday that it had “failed miserably.” The Russian defense ministry, in its Tuesday briefing, also claimed to have killed more than 1,200 Ukrainian servicemen during the offensive launched a day earlier.
But Russia’s claims of military victories come as Western officials warn Moscow’s situation is not nearly as rosy as they make it out to be.
“Most of the [Russian] units around Kherson are likely undermanned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines by ferry and pontoon bridges across the Dnipro,” the U.K. defense ministry said in its latest assessment of the war on Tuesday.
The Iranian drones that Russia’s military is now in possession of, which have widely been seen as a potential game-changer in the Kremlin’s war, have also shown “numerous failures” when tested, according to U.S. officials cited by CNN on Tuesday.
And despite Russia’s claims that it had already stifled the Ukrainian offensive in Kherson, a series of explosions were reported in and around the city Tuesday, while one local Ukrainian lawmaker, Sergii Khlan, reported that a yacht club occupied by Russian forces had taken a direct hit.
An unnamed source in the Ukrainian military was also quoted telling CNN the army had already taken back four villages in the region, though Ukraine’s Armed Forces would not confirm that claim.
“Unlike CNN, I am very worried about the fate of those people who are living in these settlements and about those units fighting, so we are not confirming anything yet. We are working and will announce [new developments] as soon as possible,” Natalya Gumenyuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces in the south, said in televised comments Tuesday.
