Russian officials celebrated unconfirmed claims that the country’s troops had defeated Ukrainian landings in the Kherson Oblast on Saturday “as if they had won a major victory,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
The claims were made by the head of the Russian occupation in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, who said that Russian troops repelled Ukrainian forces from the areas near the Antonivsky Bridge on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
According to Saldo, members of Russia’s Special Forces conducted a surprise landing on Ukrainian forces overnight, forcing them away from their positions.
“By 3 o’clock in the morning, the stronghold and the hotel, where the Ukrainian militants settled, were taken,” wrote Saldo on Telegram. According to Saldo, the Ukrainians no longer have any “bridgeheads” on the eastern bank.
Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed these claims, but Newsweek has reached out to the Ministry of Defense for comment by email on Sunday.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces had eliminated a Ukrainian group attempting to land on the island north of Oleshky – near the city of Kherson—on the same day, according to the ISW.
The Ministry also published an interview with the commander of the 80th Arctic Motorized Rifle Brigade, who claimed that Russian forces fully restored their positions along the coast of the Dnipro River and repelled Ukrainian attempts to cross the river.
The ISW wrote, “Russian sources notably did not provide any evidence that Russian forces regained control over coastal areas and many Russian sources reported that clearing operations near the dacha areas adjacent to the Antonivsky Bridge are still ongoing as of July 1.”
So much fuss about such a small claimed victory, said the ISW, “suggests either that the Russian military command sincerely fears a Ukrainian attack on east bank Kherson Oblast or that it is desperate for an informational victory following the Wagner Group‘s armed rebellion or both.”
The leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently turned on the Moscow leadership, creating what many experts called the biggest threat to Putin’s grip on power.
The group, which is accused of committing war crimes in several areas of the world where it has been deployed in recent years, has been heavily involved in the battle for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which was ultimately captured by Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defense didn’t initially acknowledge Wagner’s role in the battle. Since then, Prigozhin has been extremely critical of the Moscow military leadership—though not of Putin directly—accusing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of incompetence and saying his troops were deliberately attacked.
In 24 hours on June 23-24, Prigozhin had his forces move towards Moscow and seek “revenge” for his troops, in a short-term mutiny which abruptly ended with his exile to Belarus and the dismantling of the Wagner Group.
While the Kremlin said that an investigation showed that Prigozhin never intended to conduct a coup against Putin, experts agree that the Wagner chief’s short-lived rebellion has shown the Russian president’s weakness.
@Newsweek