Victory Chronicles
-DAY 156

SOUTHERN THEATER HEATS UP

Above: Graffiti reads, “Kherson is expecting Ukrainian Armed Forces”.  Photo via Odessa-Journal

• In temporarily-occupied Kherson, partisans are distributing leaflets warning civilians to leave the city.

• Ukrainian officials continue taunting the orc occupiers that the battle to take back Kherson is imminent.  Advisor to the Kherson Administration Sergiy Khlan said in an interview with Ukrainian television, “We can say that a turning point has occurred on the battlefield. We are switching from defensive to counter offensive actions.”

• Mykhaylo Podolyak, advisor to the Ukrainian president’s office, tweeted, “You can call the Antonivsʹkyy bridge a mean of ru-air defense that intercepts all UA-missiles, but you cannot escape the reality – occupiers should learn how to swim across the Dnipro River. Or should leave Kherson while it is still possible. There may not be a third warning.”

• Melitopol residents in southern Zaporizhzhya Oblast have reported columns of enemy troops and equipment heading west towards Kherson for the last several days.

• War watchers report that russia has built a pontoon-ferry next to the Antonivsky bridge, “creating a fuel and ammo traffic jam” adjacent to the bridge’s pillars.  Unconfirmed reports say that the pontoon bridge has already been hit by Ukrainian missiles.

• Local reports near Kherson say that occupying orcs are stealing any kind of boat to cross the Dnipro river.  The city of Kherson lies north of the Dnipro River, therefore, without access to bridges to the south and east, occupiers will have a difficult time with resupply and escape.

RUSSIAN LOSSES CATASTROPHIC

Above: Destroyed enemy equipment litters the landscape wherever they go.  Photo via Independent

• In a classified briefing this week, US lawmakers learned that russia has suffered 75,000 military casualties since the start of its full-scale invasion in February, according to US intelligence.  “We were briefed that over 75,000 Russians have either been killed or wounded, which is huge, you’ve got incredible amounts of investment in their land forces, over 80% of their land forces are bogged down, and they’re tired,” according to Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and recently visited Ukraine.

• Oryx war analysts have visually confirmed the destruction or capture of 900 Russian tanks. This is part of almost 5,000 pieces of equipment that have been identified photographically to be damaged, destroyed, abandoned and captured by Ukrainian forces. According to the study’s authors, “This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here.”

• Even orc cyber-terrorism is losing. The hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have hacked over 2,500 russian and Belarusian sites including the Central Bank of Russia, Roscosmos and large industrial companies.  “We expected to see more strength from the Russian government,” said a security expert at the threat intelligence company Cyberint, “at least when it comes to their strategic assets, such as banks and TV channels, and especially the government entities.”

BLACK SEA BLOCKADE: CAN RUSSIA KEEP ITS WORD?

Above: The ambassadors to Ukraine of the seven G7 countries met in Odesa Friday with President Zelensky as a show of political support for the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports.  Photo via New York Times

• President Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Odesa on the eve of restarting legal shipments of grain from Ukraine’s ports.  The United Nations and Turkiye worked to broker a deal with russia to open up the Black Sea to grain exports last week.  Hours later, the enemy hit Odesa with missiles in a typical Russian show of bad faith.

• British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons tweeted, “My fellow G7 ambassadors and I are in Odesa with Turkey to reiterate the importance of the UN-brokered deal allowing food to be shipped out of Ukraine. Russia must respect the deal.”

• The first shipments are expected to leave Chornomorsk where a ship loaded with grain was preparing to depart. The UN, however, cautioned that the details of a safe route had yet to be confirmed.