Ukrainian troops have fired on Russian positions along the entire front, Volodymyr Zelensky said, as a presidential aide claimed Moscow’s defences in the Kherson region had fallen through hours after Kyiv launched its counter-offensive.
“Active military engagement is now happening along the whole front line: in the south, in the Kharkiv region, in Donbas,” Mr Zelensky said last night, as he warned Russian troops to flee “if they want to survive”.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Ukrainian forces had pushed the front line back in places but did not say where.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser, said Russian defences in the Kherson theatre had been “broken through in a few hours”.
The Ukrainian military’s southern operational command said that they had killed 117 Russian troops and destroyed over 30 units of military equipment including tanks and a howitzer.
The battlefield claims could not be verified by The Independent.
Shortly after Ukraine launched the counter-attack, the Kremlin claimed all its war goals “will be reached”.
