On Monday, Ukraine announced the start of a counterattack to retake the city of Kherson (southern of the country), and spoke of civilian casualties in the city of Mykolaiv as a result of Russian bombing, while the exchange of accusations renewed the targeting of the Zaporozhye nuclear plant.

The Russian Defense Ministry accused Kyiv of continuing "provocations" and threatening a nuclear catastrophe, and said that Ukrainian artillery had bombed the plant twice in the past 24 hours, and that the shells landed in dangerous areas near the fuel storage depot and the reactor's cooling plant.

In turn, the RIA news agency quoted officials - appointed by Russia - that a Ukrainian missile strike made a hole in the ceiling of a fuel depot at the Zaporozhye plant.

The agency quoted officials as saying that radiation levels at the nuclear power plant are normal, and that the situation there is under control.

And the Russian forces announced - according to TASS news agency - that they had shot down a Ukrainian drone over the station, and the pro-Russian authorities in the city also said that the march was targeting the nuclear fuel depot.

The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the agency's team is on its way to the station, adding in a tweet on Twitter that the safety and security of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe must be protected.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, Dmitro Orlov, broadcast pictures that he said were of a Russian bombing that targeted at night the city where the Zaporozhye nuclear reactor is located in southern Ukraine, and said that the bombing led to a fire in residential buildings in the city.

Andrei Yermak, director of the Ukrainian presidential office, accused the Russian forces of bombing the city of Enerhodar, and that they were doing what he described as "representing the response in an attempt to provoke and blackmail the world."


Kherson battle

In another context, the Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack in the south aimed at driving the Russian forces to the other side of the Dnipro River, and regaining control of the city of Kherson.

"Today, strong artillery attacks were launched against enemy positions (...) on the entire territory of the occupied Kherson region (...) It is the beginning of the end of the occupation of the Kherson region," local official and advisor to the regional governor Sergey Khelan told Ukrainian television.

He stressed that the Ukrainian forces have "the advantage" on the southern front after several strikes in recent weeks targeting bridges in the Kherson region, aimed at impeding the logistical work of the Russian army.

Earlier, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Army's Southern Command, Natalia Gomenyuk, said Kyiv's forces were attacking "in several directions" at this front.

Local sources also reported the withdrawal of a unit of separatist fighters loyal to Moscow from their positions in the region.

Since the beginning of the war, Russian forces have controlled the city of Kherson, which had a population of about 280,000 people, which is located in a key area for Russian agriculture, and it borders the Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

For his part, the mayor of the city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevich, said that two people were killed and five wounded in a Russian bombing of the southern Ukrainian city on Monday.

He added that the strikes hit residential buildings and educational institutions, and that rescue workers rushed to the sites of the strikes.

And Vitaly Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, had said earlier that the city was under heavy bombardment, before he later confirmed the deaths.

Meanwhile, Russian aerial bombardment continues on several areas in the Donetsk region, while there have been no reports of casualties.

Firefighters try to put out a fire that broke out after Russian raids on the city of Slovensk, Donetsk region (Anatolia)

Transfer of missiles from Syria

On the other hand, the Israeli company specializing in acquiring satellite images, ISI, said that Russia has transferred a battery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to the Russian port of Novorossiysk near the Crimea, Apparently trying to bolster its air defenses in the war with Ukraine.

The company published pictures showing the presence of the S-300 anti-aircraft battery in Masyaf, Syria, last April, and other pictures of the site after it was empty on August 25, after its components were transferred to the port of Tartus.

By August 20, the battery had finally left Tartus, as the company confirmed that it had been shipped on board the Russian ship Sparta-2 to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.