GENICHESK, July 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces, although they haven’t improved their tactical positions by destroying the Kakhovka dam, are trying to take advantage of a narrower Dnieper, Kherson Region Interim Governor Vladimir Saldo said on Rossiya-24 television on Thursday.
"They, for their part, are trying to use the smaller width of the Dnieper. But the reduction of the width of the Dnieper happened only upstream of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, while they are interested in Kherson and everything opposite Kherson - and that is downstream. The Dnieper flows in its natural channel there: It’s as it used to be," he said. "In operational and tactical terms, nothing has improved for making attacks from the right bank toward the left bank. It is as it used to be."
He said that chances of moving troops from the western bank to the eastern bank haven’t improved, compared with the time when the water surface was larger, because it would still be necessary to use watercraft - and deception tactics to cross unnoticed by Russian forces, which is "close to impossible."
Saldo said that sooner or later Russian forces will move over to the western bank of the Dnieper and liberate the part of the Kherson Region that’s controlled by Ukrainian units, but is originally Russian land under the Russian constitution.
"The people of the Kherson Region love their land. They do not leave, they stay in their homes, settlements even in these difficult conditions. They are doing the same things they did before. It’s now the time of harvesting grain and vegetables, everything that these fertile lands provide," he said.
Saldo said Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly takes interest in the affairs of the region. The interim governor said he briefs Putin on what measures could be useful to accelerate disaster relief efforts.