A military counteroffensive was launched by Ukraine on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces occupying the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.
Military analysts consider the counteroffensive to be the third strategic phase of the war in Ukraine, along with the concurrent eastern counteroffensive, after the initial invasion and the battle of Donbas.
After many strikes against Russian military targets, Ukraine announced the start of a full-scale counteroffensive on 29 August 2022. On 9 October, Ukraine said it recaptured 1,170 square kilometers of land. On 9 November, Russian troops were ordered to withdraw from Kherson, the only regional capital captured since the start of the invasion. Ukrainian forces liberated the city of Kherson two days later, on 11 November.
Background
Russian offensive
During the 2022 southern Ukraine offensive, Russian troops invaded the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv Oblasts. In the early days of the war, Russian troops captured several cities in southern Ukraine, including Melitopol and Kherson, pushing Ukrainian troops back to the city of Mykolaiv. The Russian forces originally aimed towards capturing the major port city of Odesa from the southeast, but were forced back following their defeat at the battle of Voznesensk, and ultimately only succeeded in occupying a small part of Mykolaiv Oblast, notably including the town of Snihurivka. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian troops pushed north and successfully defeated Ukrainian servicemen at the Battle of Enerhodar, thus seizing the city and the adjacent Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear plant in continental Europe. Russian forces also pushed east, reaching the Donetsk/Zaporizhzhia administrative borders, thereby creating a land bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland.
Russian occupation
Russian forces began an occupation of Kherson Oblast on 2 March, and the occupation authorities immediately began to consolidate their control over these territories. The authorities reportedly erected a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the town square, introduced Russian curriculum to the local school system, rerouted internet servers to Russia, issued Russian passports, and began circulating the Russian ruble. There were also widespread allegations of Russian authorities abducting hundreds of Ukrainian civilians across occupied territories. By early July, Russia controlled 95% of Kherson Oblast, 70% of Zaporizhzhia Oblast and 10% of Mykolaiv Oblast.
Annexation
In late May, Russian government officials acknowledged plans to annex all three oblasts and were reportedly setting conditions on occupied territory within Zaporizhzhia. A referendum was reportedly planned by Russian occupation authorities in the region for late 2022 to annex Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, while the occupied parts of the Mykolaiv Oblast would be included in the Kherson MSA, but officials soon moved the date forwards to autumn amid fears of being set back by the Ukrainian Army, according to U.K. intelligence officials. These referendums were held from 23 to 27 September, with Russia officially annexing Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts about a week later on 5 October. Western governments denounced the referendums as illegitimate and refused to recognize its results, and their illegitimacy was later confirmed with the adoption of United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/4.
Ukrainian counterattacks
By 11 March the Russian offensive had stalled on numerous fronts within Mykolaiv Oblast, prompting gradual retreat by the end of the month. By the end of March, eleven settlements in the northern portion of the Kherson Oblast had been recaptured by the Ukrainian military's 60th Brigade, including Novovorontsovka, Krasnivka, Kniazivka, and Kochubeivka. In April, Ukrainian authorities said they had pushed the enemy southwards to the border with Kherson Oblast.
In late May, Ukraine launched minor attacks on the border between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Oblasts.
By 1 June, the Institute for the Study of War had assessed that Ukrainian counterattacks in Kherson Oblast had successfully disrupted Russian ground lines of communication along the Inhulets river. Throughout June, small parts of northwestern Kherson and northern Zaporizhzhia oblasts were regained by Ukrainian forces, with fierce fighting around Davydiv Brid. However, the main line of Russian defenses did not retreat as initially planned. Before 9 July, Ukraine had conducted numerous small counterattacks on Russian forces, pushing them into defensive positions. By 25 July, the region's military governor claimed that Ukraine had retaken 44 towns and villages, or 15 percent of the region's territory.
Partisan warfare
There were numerous reports of partisan warfare within the occupied territories. In the city of Melitopol, Ukrainian resistance leaders claimed to have killed 100 Russian soldiers by 5 June. In Kherson, Ukrainian sources claimed that resistance fighters bombed a café frequented by Russian troops, killing Russian collaborators and destroying Russian military infrastructure. Assassination attempts and bombings have also been carried out on collaborators. On 30 August, shootouts and explosions were recorded in the city, which Russian officials attributed to "spies and saboteurs".
Prelude
Ukrainian officials first hinted at a large-scale military offensive in mid-to-late June, saying that "visible results" should be expected from Ukrainian counteroffensives by August 2022. A Ukrainian general stated on 15 June that if Ukraine were supplied sufficient weapons, it would be able to mount a massive counteroffensive by the summer.
On 5 July, Ukraine launched a major bombing campaign against Russian outposts in Melitopol, reportedly killing 200 soldiers. On 7 July, Ukraine retook Snake Island, affording Ukraine access to valuable sea channels and grain export lanes.
Meanwhile, Russia tried to strengthen its hold on Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. Russia stated that babies born in Kherson Oblast would automatically receive Russian citizenship, implying that Kherson was a part of the Russian Federation.
Speculation of counteroffensive
In the morning of 9 July, Ukrainian government authorities began to urge residents of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts to evacuate from their homes due to an impending Ukrainian counteroffensive. Residents of occupied Kherson in particular were urged to create shelters to "survive the Ukrainian counteroffensive". Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, warned of intense fighting and shelling in the upcoming days, claiming that the "ZSU is coming".
On 9 July, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the Ukrainian military, including elements of Operational Command South, to retake occupied territory. On the same day, Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov stated that Ukraine was amassing a million-strong fighting force for the offensive. Later, Reznikov said that there was a misunderstanding during his interview, and that 1 million is the total manpower of the Ukrainian "security and defense sector". He also denied that there was a "specific offensive operation".
On 24 July, Serhii Khlan, a Kherson region official, stated that "the Kherson region will definitely be liberated by September, and all the occupiers' plans will fail".
Writing a few months later in The Atlantic, military historian Phillips O'Brien remarked that it was unusual for a side to openly signal an intended offensive. He suggested that by encouraging the Russians to bring soldiers to the western side of the Dnieper and then attacking the bridges, it was creating a trap for them.
Early engagements
In early July, the Ukrainian army engaged in minor skirmishes with Russian forces. On 11 July, the Ukrainian army reported that it had recaptured the village of Ivanivka in Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian troops struck Nova Kakhovka, a Russian command post in Kherson city, with HIMARS missiles, and claimed it killed 12 officers and a Russian major general. By the afternoon, Ukrainian authorities claimed that Russian forces were transferring equipment to the left bank of the Dnieper, creating roadblocks within Kherson city in preparation for street battles. Ukrainian authorities urged civilians in Zaporizhzhia Oblast to evacuate, suggesting that a major counteroffensive was soon to come. On 13 July, the head of the Kherson regional military administration claimed that Ukraine launched counterattacks along the entire Mykolaiv–Kherson–Zaporizhzhia front line.
Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in Radensk (approximately 26 km (16 mi) southeast of Kherson City) and unspecified Russian positions in Nova Kakhovka. Ukraine continued to strike Russian targets and approach towards Kherson over the next week.
Preparation phase and initial offensive announcements
In July, Ukrainian command planned out the Kherson counteroffensive with American and British officers in Germany. At the time, the Ukrainians were considering a much broader offensive across the entire southern front which would include reaching the coast of the Azov Sea via the city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in order to cut the so-called "land bridge" between Crimea and mainland Russia. This was reportedly the preferred option of Ukrainian commander-in-chief Zaluzhnyi and British command. However, the Americans and the British ran computer simulations which demonstrated that Ukrainians had insufficient manpower and resources to accomplish the objectives of such an operation.
The Ukrainians settled on a more limited operation focused on retaking the city of Kherson. The operation would eliminate the threat of the Russian bridgehead on the west bank of the Dnieper River being used to facilitate future advances on Odesa and Kyiv.
Major General Andrii Kovalchuk was made the initial commander for the counteroffensive in the south. He initially drew up plans which aimed to bisect the Russian-held area on the west bank of the Dnieper and trap the 25,000-strong Russian contingent, preventing it from retreating across the river. Kovalchuk considered launching HIMARS missiles at the Kakhovka Dam in order to flood the river and prevent Russian crossings; this option was considered a "last resort".
The allies agreed that the offensive on Kherson would be coupled with a simultaneous offensive in Kharkiv Oblast. American general Chris Donahue had recommended that the fronts be "coequal", but the Ukrainians preferred that the Kharkiv operation be a smaller supporting feint, in order to draw Russian forces from Kherson to the east.
The starting dates of these offensives were scheduled for around 4 September in Kharkiv and around 18 September in Kherson, after two weeks of artillery bombardment. Plans were drawn up for Ukrainian forces to cross the Dnieper and advance to Crimea if they retained sufficient ammunition after taking Kherson. Ukrainian president Zelenskyy later arranged for the operation in Kherson to instead be launched first, on 29 August, in the hopes that it would produce a victory by the time of his mid-September appearance before the United Nations General Assembly, which he could then use to make a case for increased military aid. Donahue warned Zaluzhnyi that the switch would put the counteroffensive in jeopardy; however, the Russians responded by moving reinforcements from the east to the south, allowing the Ukrainians to advance far further in Kharkiv than expected.
According to a 24 July statement by Kherson Region official Serhii Khlan, Ukrainian attacks damaging Antonivka Road Bridge and another key bridge, and attacks on Russian ammunition stores and command posts, were preparatory actions for the offensive. A day earlier, Khlan stated that Ukrainian forces had retaken several villages in Kherson Oblast, but that the Ukrainian authorities requested civilians not to publish information on the progress of the campaign prior to official statements. On 26 July, Antonivka Road Bridge was hit again by a Ukrainian HIMARS missile strike. The bridge remained structurally intact while the bridge's roadway surface was damaged.