Battle of Kherson

Russian invasion In the early hours of 24 February, a large Russian force, estimated by Ukrainian military expert Serhii Hrabskyi to be 35,000 men strong, invaded Kherson Oblast from Crimea. Fighting was soon reported in Chonhar, on the border with Crimea, and residents of the town of Chaplynka in southern Kherson Oblast observed columns of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and multiple rocket launchers moving in the direction of Nova Kakhovka. Around the same time, Russian forces disembarked from helicopters and took up positions around the Antonivka Road Bridge and the village of Antonivka. With both of the area's crossings of the Dnieper River under Russian control, Ukraine's 59th Brigade of about 1,200 men was effectively surrounded outside of Oleshky. Withdrawal of Ukrainian regular army , pictured in 2006 By mid-day, most civilian volunteers from Kherson had been deployed to the 192nd Battalion's base in Naddniprianske, outside of the city. Ka-52 helicopters fired on battalion members as they retrieved weapons from the battalion's warehouses near Antonivka and , and an Mi-8 transport helicopter was observed preparing to land paratroopers in the area of the Antonivka Railway Bridge. Around midnight, the tank battalion of the 59th Brigade, which had remained positioned at the bridge, was met with a massive Russian bombardment involving fighter planes, Ka-52 attack helicopters, FAB-500 bombs, mortars and artillery. After an hour-long battle, the battalion was forced to withdraw to the village of , having suffered heavy casualties; according to commander Yevhen Palchenko, only one of the battalion's companies had remained intact. However, the unit would soon be ordered back to the bridge in order to support units of Ukraine's 80th Brigade, which had begun pushing Russian forces back from the bridge. Fighting continued throughout the early hours of 25 February. Around 4:00a.m. on 25 February, part of the 192nd Battalion was sent to prevent a bridge over the Inhulets River at Darivka from being captured by Russian paratroopers. They observed a Russian column on the opposite site of the Inhulets, and withdrew shortly thereafter, having received information that a column of Russian tanks was crossing the Antonivka Road Bridge. The bridge was still defended by Ukrainian soldiers, one of whom told the reporters that the nearest Russian positions were about away. The Russians were stationed at the southern side of the bridge, near Oleshky, but were said to not be disturbing civilians, who freely drove from one side to the other in personal vehicles. Russian encirclement of Kherson Ukrainian forces withdrew from the Antonivka Bridge to Kherson International Airport in Chornobaivka on 26 February. The same day, Russian forces began unexpectedly advancing on the airport, forcing the Ukrainian units stationed there to retreat towards Mykolaiv. According to a Tweet by The Kyiv Independent, Russian forces pulled back from Kherson after a Ukrainian air strike on Russian armored vehicles. A Ukrainian official, Anton Herashchenko, published footage of a destroyed column of Russian military vehicles near Radensk and Oleshky, just south of Kherson. A Russian Mi-24 was shot down in Sahy, Kherson. On the morning of 27 February, the Russian Ministry of Defence stated that Russian forces had encircled Kherson and, according to Ukrainian officials, had captured a part of the city, including the airport. Later in the morning, the Ukrainian Air Force allegedly conducted a successful drone strike against Russian forces in the town of Chornobaivka, just to the north of Kherson. By 28 February, the Institute for the Study of War assessed that Russian troops had likely completely encircled Kherson. ==Battle==

In the early morning of 1 March, Ukrainian officials stated that Russian forces had launched a renewed assault on Kherson and were advancing from Kherson International Airport to the highway between Kherson and Mykolaiv. While conducting heavy shelling, Russian forces surrounded the city, reached the highway, and advanced to the village of Komyshany before establishing a checkpoint. A Ukrainian official announced that Russian forces had entered Kherson later in the day, but claimed that the city administration building remained under Ukrainian control. At dawn on 1 March, Russian soldiers were seen entering Kherson's . On the morning of 1 March, Ishchenko divided the Kherson and Bilozerka territorial defense battalions into five groups and deployed them to the five main entrances of the city of Kherson. By 07:30, the 1st Company of the Bilozerka battalion was sent to defend a lyceum near Bilozerka Square. while the 2nd Company was assigned to defend . Three companies of the Kherson battalion were deployed to the "Fabryka" shopping mall, the "Salyut" shopping mall, and the entrance to the city from Chornobaivka. All but one of the companies would engage in combat with invading Russian forces later that day. Lyceum and Bilozerka Square A group of 30-40 civilians had gathered at the entrance to Kherson from the village of Bilozerka on the evening of 28 February, amid rumors on social media that Russian forces would be entering the city there. They were unarmed except for two policemen with assault rifles. The group felled trees on the roads the Russian forces were anticipated to use, in order to impede their movement and facilitate ambushes with Molotov cocktails. By 01:00 on 1 March, the group left the area. The Ukrainian military expected only light Russian infantry to be present in Lilac Park. However, when they arrived, the Russian military was fully present, with tanks and armored vehicles. At around 11:00a.m., a 20–30 minute engagement took place between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers at the park. The engagement left at least 24 Ukrainian soldiers dead, with the Russian military "finishing off" any wounded Ukrainian soldiers found after the battle. By nighttime, they had reached the center of the city and were outside the Kherson Oblast administration building. On the evening of 1 March, Russian forces occupied the port of Kherson. Pavel Filatyev, a former member of Russia's 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment who wrote a book on his experience in the war, compared the scene to paintings of barbarians sacking Rome, as "savage" Russian soldiers looted valuable goods and ate all the food they could find. In the evening of 1 March, Kolykhaiev reported that Russian forces had captured the railway station and the Kherson River Port. In the morning of 2 March, Russian forces were seen at , in central Kherson, where the Kherson Regional Administration building is located. Later in the day, a group of about ten Russian officers, including a commander, entered the Kherson City Council building, where Kolykhaiev was. Kolykhaiev acknowledged the Ukrainian military was no longer present in Kherson, and another official stated that the Russian military was in all parts of the city. == Aftermath ==

After capturing Kherson, Russia began a military occupation of the city. They used force to suppress protests by the local population. On 22 March, a Ukrainian official warned that Kherson was facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" as the city was running out of food and medical supplies. It accused Russia of blocking the evacuation of civilians to Ukraine-controlled territory. The Russian forces were reported to have committed human rights violations against the populace, including torture and arbitrary detentions. On 23 March, Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast. ==Casualties and war crimes==

According to Mayor Kolykhaiev, speaking immediately after the fall of the city, the fighting led to the deaths of as many as 300 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, and severe destruction of the city's infrastructure. Kolykhaiev claimed that schools and tower blocks had been damaged by the fighting, and that residential buildings had been fired upon by Russian forces. Kolykhaiev claimed that on 1 March, Russian soldiers shot citizens who were armed with Molotov cocktails. On 25 February, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, claimed that Russian forces murdered a journalist and an ambulance driver near Kherson. Venediktova stated that Ukrainian law enforcement had opened criminal proceedings into the shootings. Ukrainian officials alleged that beginning on 27 February, Russian forces began moving civilians from nearby villages towards Kherson, attempting to use them as human shields. Lahuta reported that the Russian military had taken "heavy losses" during combat for the Antonivskyi Road Bridge over the Dnieper River on 25 February. ==Analysis==

Treachery and collaboration In November 2023, Gilbert W. Merkx, a professor at Duke University published an article in the Journal of Advanced Military Studies that stated Russia had captured Kherson with "little resistance". Merkx stated that Russia planned and attempted to execute an amphibious landing assault on the "Kherson-Mykolaiv-Odesa axis", but was stopped by the Ukrainian coastal defenses in the early stages of the invasion. There were questions concerning how Kherson was captured so easily. Orysia Lutsevych, a member of the Chatham House, a British-based think tank stated that "Russia had its agents infiltrated into the Ukrainian security forces". Kherson was the only oblast capital captured by Russian forces during the invasion. Strategically, Kherson has been described as "a gateway to Crimea", and as a key to control of the Dnieper river. Vitalii Kim, the mayor of Mykolaiv, credited the territorial defense forces who held out at Kherson with delaying the Russian advance and giving Mykolaiv additional time to prepare its defense. ==See also==