London: Ukraine gains stronghold on Russian-controlled bank of Dnipro

The Ukrainian military has secured a bridgehead on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, according to British intelligence.
In military strategy, a bridgehead refers to, among other things, an area on the ground on the enemy-controlled side of a river that, if successfully taken over, can secure a stronghold for further advances.
For about a week, the Ukrainians have been moving troops to the river's eastern bank near the destroyed Antonivka Bridge near the city of Kherson, the British Ministry of Defence said in its daily update on the war on Saturday.
The city of Kherson, which is the capital of the Kherson region, has been struggling for weeks under constant Russian attacks in the wake of flooding caused by the breach of the nearby Kakhovka dam on June 6.
Ukraine accuses Russia of having blown up the dam structure while Moscow denies this.
While Kherson - located on the western bank of the Dnipro - was recaptured by Kiev's troops several months ago, large swathes of the region are still under Russian control.
The British intelligence report states that "combat around the bridgehead is almost certainly complicated by the flooding, destruction and residual mud from the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam."
Russian troops in the area include units of Russia's 7th Guards Air Assault Division, part of the Dnipro Group of Forces (DGF), it said.
"In recent weeks, Russia has highly likely reallocated elements of DGF defending the bank of the Dnipro to reinforce the Zaporizhzhya sector," it said.
The British Ministry of Defence has been publishing a daily update on the course of the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine more than 16 months ago. Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign.
Kiev's troops are currently engaged in a long-anticipated counteroffensive but so far have only seen slow progress.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused the West of delays in training Ukrainian pilots on US-made fighter jets.
"I think that some of our partners are dragging their feet here," he said at a press conference with Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Kiev on Saturday.
There were still no firm dates for the start and no schedules for pilot training, he complained.
In May, several European states announced a fighter jet coalition for Ukraine. Washington cleared the way for this by giving the green light for Ukrainian pilots to be trained on F-16 fighter jets.
Kiev stresses the importance of US-style fighter jets in its defensive struggle against the Russian invasion, which has been going on for more than 16 months, as they help secure its airspace and fend off drone and missile attacks.
Meanwhile the Russian Wagner mercenary group is reportedly building three military camps in Moscow-allied Belarus after its failed uprising in Russia, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Satellite images taken on June 30 showed that at least 303 tents, which are capable of housing 20 to 50 people each, were installed at a former military base in Belarus in the past week, the ISW wrote in its daily situation report on Friday.
There are also reports of plans for two more camps in western Belarus, the ISW said. Officially, these reports have not yet been confirmed.
Last weekend, Wagner troops occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then marched towards Moscow in a rebellion against Moscow's military leadership.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that he had mediated between Putin and Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin in the short-lived uprising and persuaded the latter to abort the mutiny.
As part of a deal to defuse the rebellion, Prigozhin and his fighters have allegedly been offered exile in Belarus.