A surge in fighting on the southern front line and a Ukrainian claim of new attacks on Russian positions fed speculation Tuesday that a long-expected counteroffensive has started to try to turn the tide of the war.
But Ukrainian officials warned against excessive optimism in a war that has seen similar expectations of changing fortunes before, and the Russian Defense Ministry claimed an attempt by Ukraine’s troops to launch an offensive had failed and caused heavy casualties.
Even though independent verification of battlefield moves has been extremely tough, the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence report that, as of early Monday, “several brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces increased the weight of artillery fires in front line sectors across southern Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Russian troops to flee for their lives as his forces launched an offensive near the city of Kherson, saying Ukraine's military were taking back their territory though Russia said the assault had failed.
Ukraine's offensive in the south comes after weeks of a stalemate in a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions, destroyed cities and caused a global energy and food crisis amid unprecedented economic sanctions.
It has also fuelled worries of a radiation disaster being triggered by shelling of the south Ukraine Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where Russian authorities on Tuesday reported artillery strikes near a spent fuel storage building.
Zelenskyy, in his nightly address late on Monday, vowed that Ukrainian troops would chase the Russian army "to the border."
"If they want to survive – it's time for the Russian military to run away. Go home," he said.
"Ukraine is taking back its own," Zelenskyy said.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, commenting on the offensive in the Kherson region, said Russian defenses had been "broken through in a few hours."
Ukrainian forces were shelling ferries that Russia was using to supply a pocket of territory on the west bank of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region, he added.
Ukraine's Suspilne public broadcaster reported explosions in the Kherson area on Tuesday and city residents reported in social media posts gunfire and explosions but said it was not clear who was firing.
Ukraine's military general staff, in an early Tuesday update, reported clashes in various parts of the country but gave no information on the Kherson offensive.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukrainian troops had attempted an offensive in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions but sustained significant casualties, RIA news agency reported.
The "enemy's offensive attempt failed miserably," it said.
But a Ukrainian barrage of rockets left the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka without water or power, officials at the Russian-appointed authority told RIA news agency.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
Russian shelling of the port city of Mykolaiv, which has remained in Ukrainian hands despite repeated Russian bombardments, killed at least two people, wounded some 24 and wiped out homes, city officials and witnesses said on Monday.
A Reuters correspondent reported a strike hit a family home directly next to a school, killing one woman.
The owner of the property, Olexandr Shulga, said he had lived there his entire life and that his wife was killed after she was buried in debris. "It hit and the shockwave came. It destroyed everything," he said.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to wage what it says is a "special military operation" to rid Ukraine of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and its allies describe it as an unprovoked war of aggression.
The conflict, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has largely settled into a war of attrition, mainly in the south and east, marked by artillery bombardments and airstrikes. Russia captured swathes of the south early on.
