President Zelensky's Adviser Expects Great War To Happen In Kherson

Russian military illustration. (Source: Russian Ministry of Defense/Dmitry Shutov)

JAKARTA - Senior Ukrainian officials predict a major war will ensue in Russia's partly occupied southern province of Kherson, saying the country's military is preparing for an advance by Kyiv forces.

The regional capital and river port of Kherson, which had a pre-war population of about 280,000, is the largest city center still occupied by Russia since capturing it at the start of its invasion of Ukraine eight months ago.

Ukrainian forces have not seen much of an advantage in their counter-offensive in Kherson since early October, when Russia claimed to have annexed the province and three others, a move condemned by the 143 countries at the United Nations as an "illegal annexation attempt".

"With Kherson everything is clear. Russia is replenishing, strengthening their grouping there," Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an online video on Tuesday night.

"That means no one is preparing to back down. Instead, a big battle will be fought for Kherson," said Arestovych, who did not say when the fighting would take place.

Of the four provinces annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kherson is arguably the most strategically important. It controls the only overland routes to the Crimean peninsula that Russia seized in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro, the major river that divides Ukraine.

For weeks, officials in the Russia-backed Kherson government have been broadcasting warnings that Ukrainian troops would attack the city, having evacuated thousands of civilians by boat to the eastern bank of the Dnipro from the western bank.

In the Mykolaiv region north and west of the city of Kherson, artillery duels raged throughout Tuesday, according to a post from the frontline on Rybar, a pro-Russian channel on messaging app Telegram.

Meanwhile, in Kherson's northern Ishchenka district, Ukrainian forces tried to consolidate their positions, but were forced to return to their previous lines, the post said. It said the Ukrainian military was preparing to advance along the front lines.

Russia's defeat at Kherson would be one of its biggest setbacks in the conflict.

Meanwhile, residents of remote villages near the front line in Kherson said they hoped the Russian troops who had fired on them in the past would withdraw soon.

"You fall asleep at night and you don't know if you'll wake up," said Mikola Nizinets, as dozens of villagers waited to fetch water, food packages and simple wood-burning stoves sent by relief volunteers.

With no electricity or gas and little food or drinking water in the area, many residents have fled the area.