It was a surprise to us all, the Ukrainians had announced that they were planning an assault on Kherson in the south. This was a little strange as they had not previously announced their plans, so was this a classic diversion? No doubt they built up troops and equipment in the area, maybe some shelling in the area to add some authenticity. 

What we do know is the Russians believed this and pulled troops out of the Kharkiv region to bolster defences in the south. At the time of writing, I am a little unsure how many Russian troops had been redeployed, it appears they had a choice to make, defend Kherson or Kharkiv and they chose to strengthen Kherson leaving Kharkiv exposed.  

As the offensive began, there was little news getting out so we really were not sure what was going on. What we did know was Ukraine had some pretty decent technology allowing them to concentrate firepower and I was guessing the US was supplying intelligence to the location of Russian weaknesses. Then after a week of fighting, the news of the Ukrainian successes started to filter out and apart from the African pro-Russian bloggers, Russian bots and the brainwashed, everyone was surprised and extremely happy. Let’s hope these gains are consolidated and Ukraine pushes on.