Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has told Russian soldiers to flee over the border, after his troops launched a counteroffensive around the southern city of Kherson.
“If they want to survive – it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday. “Ukraine is taking back its own,” he added.
The president’s comments came as Ukraine claimed its forces had broken through Russian lines in several areas near the Black Sea city of Kherson, which was captured by Moscow early in the war.
Oleksiy Arestovych, one of Mr Zelensky’s senior advisers, said Ukraine’s army had managed to overwhelm Russian defences in various sectors within “a few hours”. The Kremlin denied the claim.
In its latest update on the Ukraine war, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Ukrainian artillery strikes increased near Kherson on 29 August.
It added that Russian units in the city “are likely under-manned and are reliant upon fragile supply lines by ferry and pontoon bridges across the Dnipro”.
Monday evening CNN wrote: Ukrainian troops have taken four villages back from Russian occupation in the south near the city of Kherson, a Ukrainian military source tells CNN. Their main “target” is Kherson, the source added.
“The operation began at night with massive shelling of Russian positions and the rear,” the source, who CNN is not naming for security reasons, said.
“The main direction of the attack was on Pravdyne. We hit their infantry from the DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LNR (Luhansk People’s Republic), and they fled. The Russian landing force fled after them,” the source told CNN.
“We have now liberated four villages. Their first line of defense has been broken through in three places,” the military source said.
The source said the village names are Nova Dmytrivka, Arkhanhel’s’ke, Tomyna Balka and Pravdyne.
“Many of them were killed and captured, and a lot of [Russian] military vehicles [were destroyed].”
“We’ll see how it goes from here. Our target is Kherson,” according to the source.