MOSCOW: Russia’s forces occupying Ukraine’s southern Black Sea region of Kherson have suffered serious territorial losses to Kyiv’s troops over recent days, maps published by Moscow’s defense ministry showed Tuesday.
The maps included in Tuesday’s daily military briefing showed that Russian forces were no longer in control of the village of Dudchany on the west bank of the river Dnieper, where Ukraine’s forces have been pushing to reclaim territory captured at the start of Moscow’s offensive.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, defense ministry maps showed that Russian forces have left positions on the west bank of the Oskil river, in the aftermath this month of a counter-offensive by Kyiv’s army.
The Ukrainian military claimed in a statement Tuesday that Russian forces in Kherson are “demoralized” and were falling back on their positions, destroying ammunition depots and bridges in their wake.
“All this in order to slow down the offensive of our troops,” the defense ministry said in their statement.
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister Yevhen Enin said Tuesday that Ukraine’s forces had recaptured 50 towns and villages in Kherson, without specifying when.
Kyiv’s forces have been slowly clawing back territory in Kherson for several weeks but the advance has accelerated in recent days.
With a population of one million before the war, Kherson is a key agricultural area and forms the gateway to the Crimean peninsula.
Its main city, also named Kherson, was one of the first to fall to Russian forces after they launched what the Kremlin calls its “special military operations” in February.
The Kremlin last week formally annexed the region along with three others even though Russian troops do not fully control it.
Russian army maps show lost ground in key Kherson region
https://arab.news/2mgwf
Russian army maps show lost ground in key Kherson region
- The maps included in Tuesday's daily military briefing showed that Russian forces were no longer in control of the village of Dudchany
- The Ukrainian military claimed in a statement Tuesday that Russian forces in Kherson are "demoralised" and were falling back on their positions
Nowhere to pray as logs choke flood-hit Indonesian mosque
- Before the disaster, the mosque bustled with worshippers — locals and students alike — attending daily and Friday prayers
- Indonesia consistently ranks among the countries with the highest annual deforestation rates
ACEH TAMIANG, Indonesia: Almost two weeks on from devastating floods, Muslim worshippers in Indonesia’s Sumatra who gathered at their local mosque on Friday for prayers were blocked from entering by a huge pile of thousands of uprooted trees.
The deadly torrential rains had inundated vast tracts of rainforest nearby, leaving residents of the Darul Mukhlisin mosque and Islamic boarding school to search elsewhere for places of worship that had been less damaged.
“We have no idea where all this wood came from,” said Angga, 37, from the nearby village of Tanjung Karang.
Before the disaster, the mosque bustled with worshippers — locals and students alike — attending daily and Friday prayers.
“Now it’s impossible to use. The mosque used to stand near a river,” said Angga. “But the river is gone — it’s turned into dead land.”
Village residents told AFP the structure likely absorbed much of the impact of trees and logs carried by the torrents, preventing even greater destruction downstream.
When AFP visited the site, the mosque was still encircled by a massive heap of timber — a mix of uprooted trees and felled logs, likely from nearby forests.
By Friday, the death toll from one of northern Sumatra’s worst recent disasters — including in Aceh, where a tsunami wreaked havoc in 2004 — had reached 995 people, with 226 still missing and almost 890,000 displaced, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
- Uncontrolled logging -
Authorities have blamed the scale of devastation partly on uncontrolled logging.
Environmentalists say widespread forest loss has worsened floods and landslides, stripping the land of tree cover that normally stabilizes soil and absorbs rainfall.
Indonesia consistently ranks among the countries with the highest annual deforestation rates.
President Prabowo Subianto, visiting Aceh Tamiang district on Friday, assured victims the government was working to restore normalcy.
“We know conditions are difficult, but we will overcome them together,” he said, urging residents to “stay alert and be careful.”
“I apologize for any shortcomings (but) we are working hard,” he said.
Addressing environmental concerns, Prabowo called for better forest protection.
“Trees must not be cut down indiscriminately,” he said.
“I ask local governments to stay vigilant, to monitor and safeguard our nature as best as possible.”
But frustrations were growing, with flood victims complaining about the pace of relief efforts.
Costs to rebuild after the disaster could run up to 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.1 billion) and the Indonesian government has so far shrugged off suggestions that it call for international assistance.
Back in nearby Babo Village, Khairi Ramadhan, 37, said he planned to seek out another mosque for prayers.
“I’ll find one that wasn’t hit by the flood,” he said. “Maybe some have already been cleaned. I don’t want to dwell on sorrow anymore.”
