SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) - Ukrainian troops have made another unsuccessful attempt to break through the defense line in the Kherson Region, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the regional military-civil administration, told Sputnik.
"...the Ukrainian nazis made another failed attempt to attack the Kherson region. Their attempt to attack failed," Stremousov said, adding that such "attempts only lead to heavy losses in the ranks of the Ukrainian army."
According to Stremousov, Kiev is deliberately escalating the situation around Kherson in order to ask the West for more weapon deliveries.
"There has not been a single successful breakthrough or counteroffensive by the Ukrainian troops since the beginning of the special operation," Stremousov told Sputnik.
Earlier this month, Stremousov told Sputnik that the Kherson Region was beefing up its air defense system amid intensifying missile attacks from the Ukrainian army.
The shelling of residential districts in Kherson by Ukrainian troops has become more frequent in recent weeks. Earlier in July, the city of Nova Kakhovka was targeted by Ukrainian forces using the US-supplied multiple rocket launcher HIMARS. As a result, a hospital and residential buildings were damaged and several deaths were reported.
The Kherson Region and most of Zaporizhzhia Region of Ukraine are now controlled by Russia's military as a result of the special operation that began on February 24, after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help from Russia amid intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. Local military-civil administrations have already been formed in the two regions, which have announced plans to hold referendums for accession to Russia.
A Russian security source told Sputnik this month that there are two HIMARS supplied to Ukraine by the United States currently deployed near the Kherson Region, while the rest are deployed in the Donbas area. The source said that, according to information received from the Ukrainian military, out-of-staff NATO personnel are in charge of the use of HIMARS systems in Ukraine.
