Ukrainian forces have made significant gains in recent weeks, recapturing wide swaths of territory in the east and northeast. Now they're bracing for what may be one of their toughest battles yet.
Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty ImagesUkrainian artillery unit members turn back to their position after firing toward Kherson on Friday.DNIPRO, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have made significant gains over the last several weeks, recapturing wide swaths of Ukrainian territory in the east and northeast. But now they're bracing for what could be one of their toughest battles yet: for the strategically important southern city of Kherson.
As he spoke at a military camp outside Dnipro, dozens of new troops and more experienced officers were making their way through a tall field of grass during a training exercise in a camp in eastern Ukraine. "They're changing their tactics," he says."They're moving more cautiously, trying to take our land one piece at a time."Oleksandr Musienko, a military expert based in Kyiv, says there is a lot at stake in Kherson. For the Ukrainians, taking back this regional capital would be huge for morale — and a strategic win. It would also set the stage to take back parts of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, including a nuclear power plant that the Russians control.