Nov 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday the defence of the shattered eastern city of Avdiivka was key to Kyiv’s war plans, with heavy Russian losses there likely to undermine Moscow’s conduct of the broader conflict.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, meanwhile, acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s forces in southern Kherson region had established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, potentially opening a new line of attack towards Crimea.
Russian troops abandoned the western bank a year ago and took up positions on the eastern side from which they have been regularly shelling towns and villages opposite.
The acknowledgement by Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak that Kyiv’s forces were established on the Dnipro’s eastern bank followed weeks of contradictory reports.
“Against all odds, Ukraine’s Defense Forces have gained a foothold on the left (east) bank of the Dnipro,” Yermak said in an address to the Hudson Institute think-tank in the United States.
In a highly unusual incident on Monday, two Russian state news agencies published alerts saying Moscow was moving troops to “more favourable positions” east of the Dnipro River in Ukraine, only to withdraw the information minutes later.
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