Ukrainian troops mounting a counter-offensive have broken through Russian defences in several sectors of the front line near the city of Kherson, a senior advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
In a video interview on YouTube on Monday night, Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukrainian forces were shelling the ferries that Moscow is using to supply a pocket of Russian-occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region.
Russia's defence ministry said earlier on Monday that Ukrainian troops had attempted an offensive in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions but sustained significant casualties, RIA news agency reported.
The long-awaited counter-offensive to seize Kherson began on Monday, marking a significant step forward in Kyiv's campaign to retake key Russian-held territory in the south.
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Vladimir Putin has lost confidence in his defence minister and has sidelined him just as Ukraine launches its biggest counter-offensive of the war.
Media reports backed up by Western intelligence said that the Russian president had ordered his military commanders to report to him directly rather than to Sergei Shoigu, whom he blames for the stalled invasion of Ukraine.
Putin and Mr Shoigu had been considered close allies but iStories, a Russian investigative reporting outlet, said that this bond had now fractured.
"Relations between Putin and Shoigu have changed so much that the defence minister does not even dare to promote decisions that the military considers necessary," it said, quoting sources in the defence ministry.
Read more: Vladimir Putin sidelines Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister ridiculed by his own soldiers
A US spokesman said a "controlled shutdown" of the Russian-seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant would be the safest option amid continued shelling around Europe's largest nuclear facility.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will lead an inspection of the plant, with his team expected to reach Kyiv on Monday evening.
President Zelensky warned at the weekend that the situation at the plant remains dangerous, even after two power units were reconnected to the grid following a power failure.
Mr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to create a global sense of fatigue about its invasion, including by restricting the flow of gas to drive energy prices higher.
On Monday, Russia claimed that a Ukrainian missile strike punched a hole in the roof of a fuel depot at the plant.
Vladimir Putin has lost confidence in his defence minister and has sidelined him just as Ukraine launches its biggest counter-offensive of the war
Russia has claimed that a Ukrainian missile strike punched a hole in the roof of a fuel depot at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with the claim coming as a UN watchdog team prepares to visit the site this week
A former Ukrainian MP who collaborated with Russian occupying forces has been shot dead in his home, marking the fifth apparent assassination by partisans in the region