Ukraine says it has begun counter-offensive to retake Russian-held south

Kyiv: Ukrainian soldiers reinforced by moved forward Western military aid launched a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake an area in the south on Monday as Russian forces shelled residential of the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv.

Moscow recognized another offensive had been launched yet said it had failed and the Ukrainians had experienced critical losses.

But, a Ukrainian blast of rockets left the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka without water or power, authorities at the Russian-delegated local authority said.

Ukraine’s new military assault came following several weeks of relative impasse in a war that has killed thousands, uprooted millions, destroyed urban areas, and caused a worldwide energy and food crisis amid phenomenal economic sanctions.

The conflict, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, had generally sunk into a war of attrition, basically in the south and east, set apart by artillery bombardments and air strikes.

Russia caught wraps of Ukraine’s south near the Black Sea coast in its early phase.

Ukraine’s southern command said its soldiers had begun offensive activities in several directions in the south, including in the Kherson region which lies north of the Russian-annexed Crimean promontory.

Ukraine had struck more than 10 sites in the previous weeks and unquestionably weakened the enemy, as per a representative who declined to give details of the counter-offensive, saying Russian forces in the south remained very strong.

Ukraine has been utilizing sophisticated Western-provided weapons to hit Russian ammo dumps and wreak devastation with supply lines.

Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian soldiers had endeavored a hostile in the southern Mykolaiv and Kherson regions yet supported huge losses.

A shipbuilding center and port on the Southern Bug river simply off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has suffered heavy Russian bombardments all through the war yet stayed in Ukrainian hands.

Russia says it is pursuing a special military operation in Ukraine to free it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West depict Russia’s actions as a ridiculous war of hostility.

A top official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said he would lead a group of overseers to the Zaporizhzhia plant on the Dnipro waterway in southern center Ukraine.

The IAEA said the mission would assess physical damage, evaluate working conditions, and take a look at safety and security frameworks. It would likewise perform urgent protections activities, a reference to monitoring nuclear material.

On Monday Russian-installed officials said a Ukrainian missile strike had poked a hole in the top of a fuel terminal at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed a Ukrainian drone that was attempting to go attack the thermal energy plant. It said there was no serious harm and radiation levels were normal.