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What Russia's Kherson claims meant on 18 October 2025
Summary
A look back at reports of a Dnieper crossing and a Russian entry into Kherson, as stated by Russian forces.
What did Russia's claims about Kherson amount to by 18 October 2025? Two days earlier, on 16 October 2025, Russian forces said they had crossed the Dnieper river and entered the city of Kherson for the first time since 2022. They also said they had captured Karantynnyy Island and Maly Vilkhovy Island in the city's southwest.
The claims were Russia's own, and the reports described them as such. They concerned the Dnieper campaign, a series of clashes along the river in Kherson Oblast, part of the fighting in the southern theatre of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The campaign refers to clashes between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Russian Armed Forces during and after the Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake Kherson.
Why the river matters
The Dnieper is the line along which that fighting has been organised. A claimed crossing, if accurate, would therefore concern the central feature of the campaign. The claim of an entry into the city was notable because it referred to a place Russian forces had not been in since 2022.
The islands named in the reports lie in the southwest of the city, which indicates where the claimed activity was concentrated. Beyond that, the reports gave no detail on the scale of any presence or on how the claims stood on 18 October 2025, and they set out no Ukrainian position.
