Southern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Southern front
	Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Date	24 February 2022 – present; (3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
Location	Southern Ukraine (Kherson Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southern Donetsk Oblast)
Status	Ongoing Russian forces capture Kherson, Mariupol, Melitopol, Nova Kakhovka, Oleshky, Berdiansk, Snihurivka, and Enerhodar. The Russian army advances to Mykolaiv and attempts to encircle the city, but is pushed back.; Russian forces reach Mariupol from the west and assist troops advancing from the Donbas in the takeover of the city.; Occupation regimes are installed by Russia in Kherson Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast.; Ukrainian forces recapture all of Mykolaiv Oblast (except the Kinburn Peninsula) and all of right-bank Kherson Oblast including Kherson City during a counteroffensive in the south.;
Belligerents
Russia Donetsk People's Republic; Kherson Oblast (Russia); Zaporozhye Oblast (Russia);	Ukraine Donetsk Oblast; Kherson Oblast; Mykolaiv Oblast; Zaporizhzhia Oblast;
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Putin; Valery Gerasimov; Gennady Zhidko; Oleg Salyukov; Nikolai Yevmenov; Sergey Dronov; Andrey Mordvichev; Yakov Rezantsev (killed per Ukrainian claim) ; Arkady Marzoyev	Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Valerii Zaluzhnyi; Oleksandr Syrskyi; Andrii Sokolov; </ref>; Vitaliy Nevinsky; Dmytro Marchenko
Units involved
See order of battle	See order of battle
Strength
Up to 20,000 in 25 BTGs (invasion force, 24 February 2022); 7 brigades (west bank Kherson, May 2022); 20,000–25,000 (west bank Kherson, August 2022, per Ukraine); 40,000 (west bank Kherson and support units, October 2022, per Budanov); 152,000 (Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts, May 2023, per Ukraine); 200,000 (October 2024, per Ukraine)	1,800 (24 February 2022, pre-invasion); 8 brigades (west bank Kherson, May 2022); 20,000 (west bank Kherson, August 2022)

The southern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an ongoing theatre of operation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. The Russian military invaded Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine from Russian-occupied Crimea, quickly entering Mykolaiv Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast amid battles with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Elements from the southern Russian offensive joined forces with elements advancing from the Donbas to jointly surround and bombard the city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, which fell after months of siege.

Kherson was surrounded two days into the war, after which Russian forces advanced to the outskirts of Mykolaiv, which they failed to capture. The front then stabilised until a Ukrainian offensive in August. Ukrainian forces retook all of the territory west and north of the Dnieper river, and the front stabilised again just south of Kherson in November 2022. Kherson, the only oblast capital captured by Russia after its 2022 invasion, was liberated on 11 November.