Recapture of Kherson to mark turning point in war in Ukraine – Arestovich in Vilnius

VILNIUS – Ukrainian forces' recapture of Kherson will mark a turning point in the war against Russia, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's administration, said in Vilnius on Thursday.  

"A break point is when we take Kherson," he told reporters in the Lithuanian capital. "We hope to retake Kherson in one or two months, and (there will) some interesting acts in the east of the Ukraine."  

Ukrainian forces carried out two counter-attacks on Thursday morning, one in Kherson and one in Kharkiv, according to the advisor.

"We cannot tell you the names of the towns for information security reasons, but you can read about that in Telegram channels," he said.  

Arestovich said Ukraine's forces had managed to recapture about 50 kilometers of territory, and take a lot of military equipment and prisoners in a day. 

"We will take back Crimea; we will take back all occupied territories; we'll take back Donbas. We have 95 percent support of our government, the population and the military to end this war with a military victory against the Russian army," he said.    

According to the advisor, Russia's "propaganda and narratives are built up only for an offensive". 

"If they are stopped or start to be defeated, they lose – all narratives are lost, all propaganda is lost," he said. "Russia will begin to collapse after we retake Kherson or another big territory".

In Arestovich's words, Russia is struggling to mobilize its offensive forces and is failing to ensure mobilization and the necessary resources. 

The advisor played down worries about an energy crisis in the West as being "just a part of an information war". 

"But even if it's going to be a cold winter (that will) cause some troubles, it's just one winter to cut all dependence from Russia," he said. "I think Europe should have patience for one winter to cut this dependence on the Kremlin." 

"It's a great opportunity. Because if it does not, the Kremlin will try again and again to use it." 

Arestovich said that he sees not energy threat to the West, but Ukraine faces such a threat if Russia hits its heating supply infrastructure as winter approaches.

"But I don't believe in this scenario even for Ukraine, for Europe – not at all," he added.