The statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense said, “The Ukrainian army hastily abandoned its equipment and locations,” noting that among the equipment were T-64 and T-80 tanks, troop carriers and armored vehicles..
At the base there is an ammunition depot, anti-tank guided missiles, mortars, and more than 4.5 thousand tons of ammunition.
Kherson is located in southern Ukraine, and is considered an important port on the Black Sea and on the Dnieper River. About 300,000 people live in it. It is the capital of Kherson Province, bordering the Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014..
Kherson is the largest city that has fallen so far into the hands of Russian forces, and its importance lies in the fact that it is located on the estuary of the Dnieper River, overlooking the Sea of Azov from the southeast, and the Black Sea from the southwest.
With Russia’s control over it, it means that it can now cross the Dnieper River, which divides Ukraine into two parts, and head west and north to attack Kyiv from the second direction..
Kherson has Ukraine’s largest shipbuilding port in the Black Sea, and is a major center for shipping. The city grew steadily during the nineteenth century, due to shipping and shipbuilding, and remained a major shipbuilding center throughout the twentieth century.
Control of the area around Kherson also gives Russia a path to a continuous advance northward along the Dnieper River, toward strategically important cities such as Zaporizhia and Dnipro, as well as Enerhodar, a city of 50,000 people that houses the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.