Russian news agency TASS reported yesterday that the Russian-installed acting governor of Russia-controlled portions of Kherson Oblast Vladimir Saldo has requested the military’s help in evacuating civilians from the occupied city of Kherson.

On Thursday, Saldo appealed to the Russian leadership with a request to organize the departure of residents to safe regions due to daily rocket attacks from Ukrainian troops.

"The government has decided to organize assistance in leaving the region's residents to other regions of the country. We will fully assist the administration of the Kherson region in accommodating the region's residents in other constituent entities of the Russian Federation, we will provide everyone with free accommodation and everything necessary, and those who decide to stay in a new place on a permanent basis, we will provide housing," he said.

That Kherson is reportedly being subject to daily attacks from Ukrainian forces suggests Ukraine is getting closer to the outskirts of the city.

Separately, Reuters reports on a British Ministry of Defence assessment indicating the Russian forces around Kherson are attempting to stabilize a new front line around the village of Mylove, which is roughly 20 miles up the Dnipro River from the Nova Kahovka Bridge, one of the two main crossings across the Dnipro in the Kherson area.

"Heavy fighting continues along this line, especially at the western end where Ukrainian advances mean Russia's flank is no longer protected by the Inhulets River," the ministry said in its intelligence update on Twitter.

If the Mylove defenses fail to hold for Russia, forces on the western side of the Dnipro are at serious risk of being cut off without any hope of resupply.

Can Ukraine actually retake Kherson? That question is no longer as far-fetched as it once was.

Meanwhile, TASS also reports on a Ukrainian artillery attack on a supply depot just outside Belgorod, roughly 20 miles inside Russia proper north of Kharkiv.

Residents of the village are being evacuated, said the governor of the region Vyacheslav Gladkov.

"In the village of the Belgorod region, as a result of the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a warehouse with ammunition was blown up. They detonated. According to preliminary data, there are no victims or injured. We will now take the residents to a safe distance," he wrote in his Telegram channel. 

Ukraine’s strategy appears to be continuing to focus on Russian supply depots and logistics, denying Russia’s front-line forces of as much material as possible.

Whether Ukraine is winning remains to be seen, but Russia is definitely getting bloodied by Putin’s war.