Ukraine is engaged in a counteroffensive

aimed at creating

"chaos within Russian forces"

by striking at the invaders' supply lines deep

into occupied territories, according to a key

adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Mykhailo Podolyak told the Guardian there

could be more attacks in the "next two or three

months" similar to Tuesday's mysterious strikes

on a railway junction and airbase in Crimea, as

well as last week's hit on Russian war planes at

the peninsula's Saky aerodrome.

Russia said a fire on Tuesday had set off

explosions at a munitions depot in the

Dzhankoi district of Crimea - an incident

Podolyak called a "reminder" that "Crimea

occupied by Russians is about warehouse

explosions and high risk of death for invaders

and thieves".

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the

attacks. They have prompted Russian tourists

to flee Crimea in panic. There were queues on

Tuesday outside the railway station at the

regional capital Simferopol.

The defence ministry in Moscow said it was

dealing with cases of sabotage and taking

"necessary measures" to prevent further

episodes.

Speaking from the presidential offices in Kyiv,

Podolyak said: "Our strategy is to destroy the

logistics, the supply lines and the ammunition

depots and other objects of military

infrastructure. It's creating a chaos within their

own forces.

The adviser, often described as the country's

third most powerful figure, said Kyiv's

approach ran counter to Moscow's use of blunt

artillery power to gain territory in the Donbas

region to the east, which has seen Russian

troops destroy cities such as Mariupol and

Sievierodonetsk in order to gain territory.

"So Russia has kind of taught everybody that a

counteroffensive requires huge amounts of

manpower like a giant fist and just go in one

direction," he said, but "a Ukrainian

counteroffensive looks very different. We don't

use the tactics of the 60s and 70s, of the last

century."

However, the remarks could also be interpreted

as an acknowledgment that Ukraine is

struggling to amass the amount of men and

military material required to sustain a full

counteroffensive in the south of the country,

which typically requires a superiority of three

soldiers to one or more.

Instead, Ukraine has tried to cut off Kherson -

the one city held by Russia on the west bank of

the Dnieper River - by damaging road and rail

bridges using newly supplied western rocket

artillery to the point where it is no longer

possible for Russia to resupply its forces

effectively.

Podolyak asked for "50, 60, 80 more" of the

MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) on top

of an existing arsenal of about 20, 16 of which

are truck-mounted Himars supplied by the US.

Three - the track-wheeled M270 - have also

come from the UK with three more promised,

which the adviser described as

"very good".