Kherson Is Ours!!!

Nov 10

A Ukrainian tank corps pushes towards Kherson. Ukrainian soldiers re-captured the city on November 10.

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A Recipe for War, Analysis of History, Current Events, Military History, Russo-Ukrainian War, 21st Century Conflicts, The Involvement of the United States in the Russo-Ukrainian War, Annexation, Disinformation, Parallels to World War II

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Connections to the Past, Understanding the Past, Current Views, Repercussions of Events, Motives Behind Conflict, #A Recipe for War, #Ukraine, #War, Unending War

November 10, 2022

“Kherson Tse Ukraina!” (Kherson is Ukrainian) A massive crowd of protesters chanted this phrase as Russian tanks rolled into the Southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on March 2, just over a week after the start of their Invasion of the country. People throughout Ukraine chanted the same phrase on November 10, when Ukrainian tanks rolled into Kherson and Ukrainian soldiers raised their flag high above the city, soon after Russia’s armies withdrew from it and the surrounding area. It’s being called one of Ukraine’s most significant victories in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and it may prove to be a major turning point. So why is this victory so important, and what might it mean for the future of the war?

Russia occupied Kherson on March 2 with almost no resistance. The city’s mayor was said to have given it up after making a deal with the Russians, which was why it was captured so quickly. Kherson, a city of about three hundred thousand people, became the first, and so far only, Ukrainian regional capital to have been occupied by Russian forces since the start of the Invasion. In the days after Kherson’s capture, most of its namesake region was also occupied by Russian troops, who then pressed on to other nearby regions. After one of the most hard-fought battles of the war, they were driven from the area around the nearby regional capital of Mykolaiv and were ultimately repelled from other bordering regions. Despite its initial successes there, the Russians found it impossible to advance further in the region. For the next several months, the area became a relatively quiet theater of the war compared to the fierce battles for Kyiv and Mariupol. Russia consolidated its occupation of the region, giving its residents Russian passports and indoctrinating it with propaganda claiming that the area was legitimate Russian territory. It has been alleged that numerous young children were kidnapped by Russian soldiers and taken to Russia. They were given to Russian families to be raised as their own so their Ukrainian identity could be erased. However, Russia found that it didn’t have as many backers as it may have expected to be living among Kherson’s proud Ukrainian populace. Its military-civilian administration in the city became the target of a guerilla war that made governing the city and region impossible without military assistance. In the summer, Ukraine suddenly announced its Summer Counteroffensive, which gained some territory around Kherson. However, this operation turned into the most successful military deception campaign of the whole war, as it distracted Russia from the real target of Ukraine’s offensive: Kharkiv Oblast (region). The Ukrainians surprised the world when they attacked the Russian-occupied territory and re-conquered almost the entire Oblast, catching the Russians off-guard. At the same time, they continued their offensive into Kherson and made the Russian military position there increasingly untenable with the help of powerful American weapons. Russia’s sham annexation of the Kherson region failed to stop Ukraine’s advance.

Jubilant Ukrainians celebrate the re-taking of the city of Kherson on November 10, in Maidan Square in Kyiv.

The situation increasingly began to look like the 1943 Battle of the Dnieper, in which Soviet forces (including the ancestors of many Ukrainian soldiers fighting today) smashed through German armies in East Ukraine and chased them across the Dnieper River to its right bank. Now, Ukraine was doing the same thing, albeit from the opposite direction. In the last weeks of October, Russian forces announced their plans to withdraw from Kherson. Much of the population was evacuated to other Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, military hardware was moved elsewhere, and new lines of defense were prepared. On November 9, the withdrawal finally began. The next day, Kherson and the surrounding area were liberated and the remaining populace was welcomed back into Ukraine. This was a major symbolic victory due to Kherson’s status as the gateway to Southern and Western Ukraine, and a major tactical and strategic one as the capture ensured Ukraine’s complete control of virtually all of its internationally recognized territory to the west of the Dnieper River. Ukrainians all over the world celebrated the city’s liberation. For many, it seemed that the war had reached a turning point. However, complications emerged.

In the weeks before the liberation of Kherson, Russian leadership began making an unusual claim. Propaganda outlets claimed that Ukrainian “plans” for a “dirty bomb” (a type of low-yield radioactive weapon) had been discovered. They also claimed that Ukraine planned to use the weapon. Western analysts have called these claims an excuse for Russia to use its own nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Many hypothesized that they would leave one in Kherson after abandoning it. Others said that the Russians would use a nuclear weapon to blow up the massive nearby Nova Kakhovka Dam, which had already been damaged by conventional weapons, to flood the area around Kherson right when Ukrainian soldiers were to re-enter the area. Others claimed that the abandonment process was a sham and that Russian soldiers were hiding in secret positions, waiting for the right moment to counterattack. Thankfully, none of these things have happened, and it so far appears that the liberation of the Kherson Area is a total victory for Ukraine. Now, it’s likely that the front in the area will stabilize along the mighty Dnieper (which is a mile wide in many areas near Kherson). In the meantime, Ukraine will celebrate its great victory, and its people will say, with more pride and joy in their hearts than ever before “Kherson Tse Ukraina!!!”