As Ukraine’s armed forces step up airstrikes against Russian positions in the country’s eastern Donetsk region, more tangible signs of Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to retake Russian-occupied Kherson are emerging. Ukraine late last week lobbed a volley of long-range Himars missiles on Russia’s provisional headquarters in the strategic port city. That counterattack, combined with what Ukrinform reported were 21 airstrikes against Russian strongholds and air defense systems in Donetsk, can be seen along with recent gains at Kharkiv as pushing the Kremlin further along the path toward defeat. 

Recapturing Kherson is a key in that effort. As the Sun has previously reported,  the Kremlin has already called off referendums to annex territories that it has previously claimed. At Kherson, where even though it appears that Moscow has  indefinitely postponed a referendum on “joining Russia,” the Kremlin has nevertheless installed a military-civilian administration.

It has done so clumsily. Not only are the Russians there completely reviled by the local population, but it appears that Moscow does not even have the means to protect its own. The Telegraph reported that the Russian-installed deputy leader of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, said that his office took a direct hit in the rocket attack. There was no immediate word about the number of casualties, if any.

The Himars are American-made long-range mobile artillery rocket systems, and Ukraine’s armed forces apparently launched five of them in Friday’s attack. According to multiple reports, at the time of the strike a meeting was under way between the heads of the city and municipal districts, and explosions caused damage to both Kherson’s regional administration and district court buildings. 

There are more Himars available to Ukraine, though it was not immediately clear whether further counterattacks at Kherson are planned. Just as Kyiv tightens the vise in the Donbas, though, what happened in Kherson confirms what the Telegraph calls a strategy shift as Ukraine is now clearly going for “civilian command hubs of occupation forces that have so far been spared from targeting with long-range munitions.” As it does, and in concert with Ukraine’s ongoing, covert strategy of targeted attacks against Russian officials, Moscow’s grand schemes to cement its occupation of Kherson will continue to unravel. 

President Zelensky, for his part, is unambiguous on the direction events are taking, promising no let-up in Ukraine’s campaign to oust Russian forces wherever they are in Ukraine. “Maybe now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull,” he said in his latest nightly video address to Ukrainians. “But this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series…. Because Ukraine must be free — all of it.”

The AP reported that on Saturday, Ukraine’s military command said its forces secured the eastern bank of the Oskil River and that the river, which flows south from Russia into Ukraine, “had been a natural break in the newly emerged front lines since Kyiv’s counteroffensive began.”

Despite Russia’s embarrassing string of recent defeats, it still has plenty of firepower and continues to wield it. In an online briefing, Ukraine’s military command said that “as it faces setbacks on the front lines, Russia has likely extended the locations it is prepared to strike in an attempt to directly undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and government.”

In the meantime, Russia’s material losses mount. The British defense ministry said that Russia has likely lost four combat jets in the past 10 days alone. Its manpower is dwindling, too. The Kyiv Independent reported today that Moscow is sending hundreds of convicts to fight in Ukraine.

If Russia’s setbacks at Kherson are only incremental for the time being, they are going virtually unreported in Russian media. State-backed media continues to lash out against the West, as evidenced by an article in RIA Novosti Monday headlined, “The West is waging war to destroy Russia.” Neither the calamity of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor a chronicle of the looming collapse of the Kremlin’s grip on Kherson is anywhere to be found.