Ukraine is gathering strength for an assault on Kherson

in Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, has been relentless. In the five months since the start of the war, only 21 days have gone by without any Russian bombs, says the mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. More than half of the city’s residents (who numbered 480,000 before the war) have fled. With the main pipelines destroyed, the city gets its water from a nearby estuary of the Southern Bug river. The stuff is not safe for bathing, much less drinking, locals say. At least 7,800 buildings have been damaged, claims the governor, Vitaliy Kim, standing in front of his former headquarters. The building was torn in half by a Russian airstrike in March that killed 37 people.But there is some optimism in the air. South of Mykolaiv a Ukrainian offensive to retake Kherson, the biggest city captured by Russian forces since the start of the invasion, is picking up steam. Ukrainian troops are less than 30 km from the city. On July 27th their American-supplied multiple-launch rocket systems, known as , pummelled the main bridge Russia uses to send troops and supplies into Kherson from Crimea, the second such attack in as many weeks.