The Power Within: The Kyiv Independent’s first-ever magazine. Be among the first to get it.

pre-order now
Skip to content
Edit post

UK Defense Ministry: Russian shelling of Kherson aims to deter Ukrainian counteroffensive across Dnipro River

by The Kyiv Independent news desk February 1, 2023 9:59 AM 1 min read
This audio is created with AI assistance

The Russian military likely aims to degrade civilian morale and deter potential Ukrainain counterattacks across the Dnipro River with its heavy shelling of Kherson and other settlements on the western bank, but the rationale behind the expenditure of strained ammunition stocks remains unclear, the U.K. Defense Ministry said on Feb. 1.

The ministry's daily update comes as Russia intensified its shelling of Kherson and its surrounding areas over the past few days, killing at least three people in the liberated regional capital on Jan. 29. The ministry added that Russian forces were carrying out “some of the most intense shelling in the conflict” along the Dnipro River in the south of Ukraine.

“Kherson remains the most consistently shelled large Ukrainian city outside of the Donbas,” the British intelligence report said. “Russia’s precise rationale for expending its strained ammunition stocks here is unclear."

Russia has begun indiscriminately shelling the liberated parts of Kherson Oblast since its withdrawal to the river's eastern bank in November, pushing many residents to flee their homes even after surviving eight months of Russian occupation.

Despite the continued Russian shelling, Ukraine is still waging a counteroffensive to liberate the rest of the Kherson Oblast, according to Southern Operational Command spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk.

Earlier this week, Humeniuk claimed that Ukraine was conducting a “quite powerful” counteroffensive on the east bank in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and that Russian forces deployed there lacked equipment for a major combat operation.

Ukraine war latest: Russia claims control over Blahodatne, intensifies attacks near Vuhledar

News Feed

6:04 PM

Chornobyl isn’t safe anymore... again.

Chornobyl disaster occurred in the early hours of April 26, 1986, in Soviet Ukraine. Nearly 39 years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, Russia’s brazen attack on the $2 billion New Safe Confinement (the sarcophagus enclosing the destroyed reactor) in February 2025 poses a new potential radioactive danger as engineers race to repair the damage. The Kyiv Independent’s Kollen Post dives into why the restoration is not as simple as it may seem.
MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe
Please, enter correct email address
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan
* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.