Russian military evacuates equipment out of Kherson Oblast, satellite images show

Russian troops are taking military equipment out of the right bank of Kherson Oblast, where a vulnerable Russian military grouping has been under attack by a Ukrainian counteroffensive, an analysis by RFE/RL's Russian desk and the Ukrainian investigative project Skhemy shows. The journalists saw photos of military equipment shipped by barges from the right bank of the Dnipro River, where Ukraine via precise artillery strikes had destroyed bridges connecting the Russian grouping with reinforcements, to the left bank shared by a militant from Russia's puppet "Luhansk People's Republic." They then studied satellite images and found out that the Russians stopped sending equipment to the vulnerable right bank at the beginning of October: since then, the ferries come to the right bank empty, but return to Nova Kakhovka with a full load.

RFE/RL analyzed satellite images by Planet Labs and found that empty ferries had crossed from Nova Kakhovka to the right bank on 8 and 12 October. On 5 October, the ferry was spotted located with equipment and heading to the left bank.