Ukrainian Counteroffensive Near Mykolaiv Relieves Strategic Port City
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine—For weeks, Mykolaiv was on the front line. Russian tanks and infantry made incursions into the streets of the southern Ukrainian port city. Russian artillery blasted civilian neighborhoods. Now, with Ukrainian forces pressing a counteroffensive, the Russians have been pushed back and Mykolaiv’s 470,000 people are attempting a tentative return to normality. Coffee shops and some restaurants are open again. Supermarkets have been restocked with fresh groceries. Bank branches have reopened. Municipal buses and trams run the streets. Mothers with children play in playgrounds as the sound of artillery thuds in the distance. Fresh tulips and roses are available in a variety of shades in a row of downtown flower shops.
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A regional capital and a strategic eastern gateway to Odessa, the country’s main port, Mykolaiv came under sustained attack in the first week of the war as Russian forces pushed north from Crimea and seized the city of Kherson 40 miles away. Dogged resistance from the Ukrainian army and local territorial defense forces prevented Mykolaiv from being overrun, as successful ambushes destroyed Russian columns before reinforcements arrived. Then, in the past several days, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive toward Kherson, breaking through Russian lines and going past the boundary between the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. A Ukrainian strike on the Russian-controlled Kherson airport destroyed at least 13 Russian combat helicopters and a large number of military vehicles, according to satellite imagery and video footage.
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Ukrainian officials involved in organizing the defense of Mykolaiv said the city’s fierce resistance had surprised the invaders. “The Russians expected they would breeze into town, that everyone would welcome them, and that nobody would try to stop them. It didn’t turn out that way,” said Mykolaiv Gov. Vitaliy Kim, who now sometimes drives around town in a captured Russian Tigr armored vehicle, a trophy repainted with a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag. Mykolaiv remains within range of some Russian artillery, especially of the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems that can hit targets from 70 kilometers away, cautioned Mr. Kim. But, for now, the Russians have other priorities.
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In recent days, Ukrainian officials regained access to previously Russian-controlled villages such as Luch, Shevchenkove and Ukrainka southeast of Mykolaiv, delivering food and evacuating civilians. Still, the liberated areas remain dangerous, Mr. Kim said. “Some of the Russian infantry vehicles and tanks are just lost, wandering around. They don’t have communications, they don’t know where they are,” Mr. Kim said. “Sometimes they appear in our rear and start firing at any civilian car they see because they are afraid someone will jump out of that car with a rocket-propelled grenade and blast them.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukrainian-counteroffensive-near-mykolaiv-relieves-strategic-port-city-11647605489 (subscription)
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