Ukraine launches counter-offensive to retake Southern Areas from Russia

Kyiv: Ukrainian troops bolstered by stepped-up supplies of Western military aid on Monday started a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago. However, the southern port city of Mykoliav came under heavy Russian shelling, with the mayor saying homes had been hit and at least two people killed.

Meanwhile a team from the United Nations nuclear watchdog headed to Ukraine to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - captured by Russian forces in March but still run by Ukrainian staff - that has become a highly dangerous frontline in the war.

Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations of shelling in the vicinity of the nuclear plant, Europe's largest, amid fears of a radiation leak in a country still haunted by the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

The spokeswoman for Ukraine's southern command, Natalia Humeniuk, said its troops had started offensive actions in several directions in the south, including in the Kherson region.

Russia rapidly captured swathes of Ukraine's south near the Black Sea coast, including the city of Kherson, in the early phase of the war. The Kherson region lies north of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula and has coasts on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has been using sophisticated Western-supplied weapons to hit Russian ammunition dumps and wreak havoc with supply lines. Humeniuk told a briefing that Ukraine had struck more than 10 dumps in the past week and they had "unquestionably weakened the enemy". She declined to give details of the counter-offensive, saying Russian forces in southern Ukraine remained "quite powerful".

NUCLEAR SAFETY
The head of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) said he would lead a team of inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia plant on the Dnipro river in southern central Ukraine. "We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine's and Europe's biggest nuclear facility," Rafael Grossi said on Twitter.

The IAEA said separately the mission would assess physical damage, evaluate working conditions, and check safety and security systems. It would also "perform urgent safeguards activities", a reference to keeping track of nuclear material. Reuters