Good morning. Last night, a senior advisor to Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that a long-awaited counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region was underway. Zelenskiy did not directly address the attack in his nightly address, but told Russian troops “If they want to survive, it is time … to flee”. Russia confirmed that a new offensive had begun, but claimed that it had “failed miserably”.
The live blog has the very latest this morning. Today’s newsletter, which comes a little late as the situation develops, will run you through what we do know so far, reasons for caution over the scale of the attack – and why a counteroffensive in Kherson could be so important. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Education | Leading Conservatives including two former Tory education secretaries have urged the incoming prime minister to address rising cost pressures on schools as a matter of urgency, as head teachers struggle to pay soaring energy and wage bills.
Immigration and asylum | The Home Office is paying a company £2m over six months to pick up people trying to cross the Channel, amid tension with the Royal Navy over its role in Priti Patel’s plans to deter asylum seekers. Details were published as crossing in small boats hit a new record.
Space travel | Nasa postponed its planned launch of a test mission for a rocket that can ferry humans to and from the moon because of an unexpected engine issue. The Artemis 1 mission is now scheduled to launch on 2 September.
Conservatives | Liz Truss has been accused of “running scared” of scrutiny after pulling out of a BBC interview scheduled for Tuesday, meaning she is likely to become prime minister without undergoing a single set-piece broadcast quizzing.
Agriculture | A presidential taskforce in Indonesia is investigating the recruitment of fruit pickers who say they took on debts of up to £5,000 to secure jobs in Kent. The Guardian revealed that Indonesian labourers were harvesting berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
In depth: What we know about the attack so far
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How did Ukrainian officials frame the attack in Kherson?
At a briefing reported on Monday afternoon, Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, said that an offensive in Kherson, the only regional capital Russia has been able to secure since the war began, was underway. Her comments came after video circulated that apparently showed a soldier from the Russian-run self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk saying Ukrainian forces had broken through.
The Guardian’s Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv reported comments echoing Humenyuk’s last night from Oleksiy Arestovych, a senior adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy himself did not refer to the attack specifically in his nightly address. But he said: “The occupiers should know: we will oust them to the border. To our border, the line of which has not changed.”
Other Ukrainian officials echoed those claims. Sergiy Khlan, a local deputy and adviser to Kherson’s regional governor, said it was “the beginning of the end of the occupation of Kherson region” and “a prepared, well-balanced start of a counteroffensive”.
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How do they say it has gone so far?
Arestovych said that Ukrainian troops were attacking Russian defences along the frontline and claimed they had broken through in several places. He also said ferries on the west bank of the Dnieper river, which are being used to supply Russian forces in the territory, were being shelled.
The BBC reported officials in Kyiv claiming that US-supplied Himars rocket systems had been used to destroy three bridges across the Dnieper as well as temporary bridges created by Russian forces. The BBC also said that a Ukrainian operational group in the region claimed a Russian-backed regiment had left its positions and Russian paratroopers had fled.
Ukrainian officials declined to give many details of the attack, citing operational security. But their claims could not be independently corroborated. While witnesses reported blasts in the cities of Kherson and Nova Kakhovka, the extent and success of Ukrainian operations are yet to be confirmed.
The Financial Times reported remarks from John Kirby, a US official, who said Ukraine’s actions had “already had an impact on Russia’s military capabilities” because Moscow had been forced to divert resources to the region from the east of the country.
This at-a-glance piece gives a wider picture of the situation in Ukraine this morning, including news of a team of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors en route to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv claims Russian occupiers are violating nuclear safety protocols.
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What does Russia say?
Russia’s state-owned news agency Ria cited the defence ministry in Moscow as acknowledging that Ukrainian troops attempted an offensive in the southern Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. A senior official in Nova Kakhovka told Ria that civilians had been ordered to take refuge in bomb shelters.
The Russian defence ministry said Ukrainian forces had sustained significant casualties and claimed the “enemy’s offensive attempt failed miserably”. The FT reported that Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea, said on Telegram that the claimed counterattack was “the latest fake [news] from Ukrainian propaganda” and said Ukraine’s forces were “taking extremely severe losses”.
Again, it is not yet possible to verify these claims, and Russia routinely inflates the scale of Ukrainian losses in its updates. Recently, Western and Ukrainian intelligence has noted a buildup of Russian troops and equipment in the region, potentially suggesting Russia was preparing its own offensive.
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What are the prospects of success?
Humenyuk told reporters that Russian forces were strong in the region – and that even though morale was low among their ranks, “it was too early to relax”. In comments on his Telegram account reported by the Guardian’s Samantha Lock on the live blog, Oleksiy Arestovych characterised the operation as “a planned slow operation to grind the enemy” and said: “This process will not be very fast, but will end with the installation of the Ukrainian flag over all the settlements of Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s ability to conduct its claimed counteroffensive has been greatly enhanced by the provision of weapons by the West, and Russian positions in the region have been under artillery barrage for weeks and cut off from their supply lines.
But it is too early to say whether those successes will translate to victory on the ground. A US official quoted by the New York Times said that the Pentagon “remained cautious about whether Ukraine’s current military capabilities were sufficient to make significant gains.”
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Why is an attack in Kherson significant?
Kherson has huge symbolic and practical significance as the only regional capital to have been secured by the Russian invaders – and if Ukraine can entirely cut off enemy forces on the western bank of the Dnieper, they will have a realistic prospect of success.
That would disrupt Russian attempts to proceed with a sham referendum designed to give credibility to Moscow’s claims that residents of Kherson and other parts of southern Ukraine wish to be part of Russia. For more on how that prospect is viewed by citizens in Kherson, read this piece by Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer from earlier this month, in which one interviewee says: “no one thought about [a referendum] before the war. Now it will be a referendum at gunpoint.”
There has been a growing sense that if Kyiv is to retake the city, it must do so as a matter of urgency: changing weather – including rain that will make the countryside muddy and far harder for ground troops to traverse – in the autumn means that there is a powerful incentive to launch a counteroffensive now. There are also fears that European support could fade as the impact of high energy prices begins to take hold.
Success in any operation to take Kherson could break a long period of deadlock – and persuade Western allies that it is worth continuing to provide the arms and funding that Ukraine needs. But if an attack fails, Ukrainian morale would be undermined, and Russia’s plans to bring the south of the country under its full control would be reinforced.
What else we’ve been reading
In this fascinating piece, Dana Smith looks at how, 50 years after its eradication in the United States, polio made a comeback. Nimo Omer
Meghan Markle has a secret: she’s getting back on to Instagram. Allison P Davis’s excruciating, nuanced, and riveting profile for New York magazine, also featuring Tyler Perry, Harry beatboxing and massive palm trees, is a reminder that the royal family is a low bar against which to appear a hero. Archie
As the Edinburgh fringe comes to an end, Brian Logan wonders whether the month-long festival has gone beyond crisis point. It must evolve and change, Logan argues, or call it a day. Nimo
Dan Hancox writes persuasively about the value of public parks, “the last vestiges of truly free public space”, and why drastic underfunding is threatening their “their accessibility and very publicness”. Archie
In this week’s Big Idea series, Lisa Feldman Barrett asks: do animals have emotions? Parsing through the philosophical and scientific evidence, she concludes that animals may feel emotions, but not in the way you might think they do. Nimo
Sport
US Open tennis | Serena Williams has extended her farewell tour with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Danka Kovinić in the first round of the US Open. Britain’s Harriet Dart won against 10th seed Daria Kasatkina while Andy Murray took a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory against No 24 seed Francisco Cerúndolo.
Golf | Rory McIlroy used his $18m FedEx Cup victory to launch a defence of the PGA Tour amid continued defections to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, telling reporters: “This is the best place in the world to play golf … I don’t know why you’d want to play anywhere else.”
Football | West Ham have announced the signing of the Brazil midfielder Lucas Paquetá from Lyon in a club-record €60m (£51.3m) deal. The 25-year-old becomes the eighth new recruit for the Hammers this summer.
The front pages
The lead story in the Guardian print edition is “Schools face closure chaos as costs soar, warn Tories”. The i says “Truss: Wait until I’m PM for cost of living plan”. The Daily Express sounds convinced already: “Truss tax cut plan ‘only way’ to rescue economy”. The Financial Times has “Brussels to unveil crisis action in bid to curb soaring energy costs”. “Last orders for pubs” fears the Metro, amid warnings fuel bills could spell their end. “Statins not to blame for aches – it’s just age” – that’s the Daily Telegraph while the Times front page has that one across the top but splashes with “Rush to drill for more oil in North Sea”. “Maxwell jail pal is a double murderer” – the Mirror reports on Ghislaine Maxwell’s prison life. “Now Meghan drops her ‘truth bombs’” is the Daily Mail’s top story and in a similar vein the Sun has “Harry: I lost my dad”.
Today in Focus
The Benin bronzes and why their return to Nigeria matters
Artist Victor Ehikhamenor and Prof Dan Hicks, a professor of contemporary archaeology, look at the significance of a collection of Benin bronzes that the Horniman museum in London is returning to Nigeria
Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Charlie Josephine, the non-binary playwright of I, Joan, has taken the legendary story of Joan of Arc and reimagined it in a new queer light. The play, which opened at the Globe in London, examines the life of a 17-year-old Joan, but this time the saint is portrayed as non-binary. Josephine sees Joan’s gender expression as part of their divinity and uses their identity as a way to explore religion and class dynamics. “For those who want to see Joan as a strong young feminist woman, they can still see Joan like that,” Josephine explains. “For those hungry for this new exploration of Joan, this play is exciting. Nothing is being taken away, only expanded.”
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
