The Armed Forces probably prepare a counter -offensive in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions - ISW (map)

In particular, analysts in their document refer to the information of the Ukrainian command, which states that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue defensive preparations in the south of Ukraine. They are changing the Dnieper coast in the Kherson region, preparing for the possible counter -offensive of Ukrainian troops.

Thus, the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko reported that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Mariupol had not made any serious displacements in recent days and continue to strengthen the defense. Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov in turn stated that the occupiers were moving personnel through Melitopol. Russian bloggers who previously wrote about the possible counter -offensive of the Armed Forces in the Zaporozhye region now added Kherson.

On April 18, the occupation head of the Kherson region said that the forces of Ukraine concentrated indefinite forces on the western right bank of the Dnieper in Kherson region and demonstrated their willingness to force the river. The ISW does not reject that it was through the future counter -offensive of the Armed Forces that President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin came to the occupied part of Kherson region to check the preparation of the Russian Federation for the Armed Forces.

Another Russian Milbloger argued that reports of the Ukrainian counterattack in the Western Zaporizhzhya region (north of Melitopol) are false, but that Ukrainian troops are preparing for a counter -offensive in the area of ​​childbirth and Orikhov. Recall that American analysts believe that the Kremlin deliberately published Putin's visit to the occupied territories to "overshadow" Zelensky's visit to Avdiivka.