Ukraine takes control of Davydiv Brid settlement near Kherson

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has published a video on Twitter which shows soldiers of the 35th Separate Marine Brigade raise the Ukrainian flag over a TV tower in the settlement of Davydiv Brid in Ukraine’s Kherson region.

“The Ukrainian marines are confidently advancing towards the Black Sea,” the tweet reads.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had already liberated 1,534 settlements previously occupied by the Russian forces.

According to Tymoshenko, 500 settlements have already been demined. Police resumed their work in 1,200 of them, and local government bodies were reinstated in 1,508 localities. A total of 933 medical facilities and 981 education facilities resumed operations in the liberated areas of Ukraine, he added.

Experts with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) pointed out earlier that elite Russian army units had been unable to hold the territory against the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the north of the Kherson region and near Lyman.

On 1 October, the Ukrainian army stated that they had liberated five settlements near Lyman in the Donetsk region and encircled the Russian troops there. On 2 October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine had established full control over Lyman. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed that the Russian forces had withdrawn from the city.

The New York Times earlier reported, citing US officials, that Russian army commanders had wanted to retreat from Ukraine’s Kherson to save the equipment and manpower, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not let them.