Ukrainian forces are continuing to advance south and have reportedly made breakthroughs in the Kherson region and taken control of some settlements.
Kyiv has stayed silent on details of the assault in the south of the country, but Russian military bloggers have described a Ukrainian tank advance through dozens of kilometres of territory along the bank of the Dnipro river.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior ministry, posted what he said was video of a Ukrainian soldier waving a flag in Zolota Balka, downriver from the former front line.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute think-tank, cited Russian bloggers as reporting their forces falling back as far as Dudchany – 40 km (25 miles) down river from where they had opposed Ukrainian troops a day earlier.
“When this many Russian channels are sounding the alarm, it usually means they’re in trouble,” he wrote on Twitter.
A Ukrainian advance along the Dnipro river could trap thousands of Russian troops on the far side, cut off from all supplies. The river is enormously wide, and Ukraine has already destroyed the major crossings.
This map shows the state of affairs in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
(Press Association Images)
It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky announced Ukrainian troops have reclaimed two settlements -Arkhanhelske and Myrolyubivka, as well as the strategic city of Lyman – over the weekend in Kherson just days after Russia claimed the territory following a so-called referendum.
“This week, the largest part of the reports is the list of settlements liberated from the enemy as part of our defence operation. The story of the liberation of Lyman in the Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media. But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman,” Mr Zelensky said in his late night address on Sunday.
A Ukrainian serviceman sits on a T-80 tank that they claimed had been captured from the Russian army, in Bakhmut, Ukraine
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A Russian-installed official in the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, admitted in a video statement today that the Ukrainian forces “have broken through a little deeper”.
However, he insisted that “everything is under control” and that Russia’s “defense system is working” in the region.
The ongoing assault comes after Russia’s recent loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub.
This is seen as a was a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force.
Additional reporting by agencies