Kherson

Kherson Oblast straddles the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Russia occupied the regional capital in the opening days of the 2022 invasion but was forced to withdraw across the Dnipro in November 2022 in Ukraine's most significant counteroffensive victory. Russia still holds the eastern bank and formally annexed the entire oblast in September 2022, a claim no UN member state recognises.

The oblast's status is one of the four territorial sticking points blocking peace talks; Bloomberg reported that Russia weighed suspending negotiations unless Ukraine pre-committed to ceding Kherson alongside Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. Kherson remains under sustained drone and missile attack: on 24 March 2026 Russia launched a then-record 948 drones across 11 regions, Kherson among them.

In early June 2026 the wider southern occupation that runs through Kherson came under acute logistics pressure. Ukraine's drone units choked Russia's supply spine into occupied Crimea, forcing petrol rationing to 20 litres per vehicle per week and severing the Chonhar Bridge on 7 June, adding roughly 130km to Russian supply runs through the southern corridor. ISW assessed Ukraine had achieved drone fire control over the T-22-09 land corridor that ties occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to Crimea.

The oblast also absorbed part of the heaviest barrage of the window: Russia fired 656 drones and 73 missiles overnight into 2 June across Ukraine.