u.s. and ukrainian officials tell myself and my colleague tom lister that the latest counteroffensive is making forward progress in the south as they attempt to recapture russian-occupied region of kherson by the end of this year. geoelection data shows the ukrainians launched their most ambitious ground assault since the beginning of the invasion just over the last week. a senior u.s. official says the ukrainians have achieved some success attacking russian supply lines aiming to cut off and isolate russian troop deployed to the west of the dnipro river, a keadyy dividing line. they want to take the site of an important hydroelectric plant and a canal that crucially supplies russian occupied crimea with most of its oil.