Yesterday, Monday, Ukrainian sources confirmed that the army had regained new areas in Kherson, and was preparing for battles in Lugansk, while the separatists confirmed that they had responded to infiltration attempts despite acknowledging the Ukrainian advance.

And Ukrainian media reported that the Ukrainian forces had taken control of the village of Mikhailivka, north of Kherson, while a pro-Russian official said that the Ukrainian forces had made some breakthroughs in the city, and had taken control of some residential communities, describing the situation as tense.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashenko also published a picture of Ukrainian soldiers standing next to a golden statue surrounded by the Ukrainian flag, in a village he said was Mikhailivka.

Sergey Klan, a member of the Kherson local council, said troops also recaptured the villages of Osokorevka, Khrechenkovka and Zolotaya Balka.

Meanwhile, Sergei Prachuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Military Regional Administration in Odessa, said that his forces are fighting major battles to liberate the south, calling for the media not to report on the news of the liberated areas, for the sake of the soldiers' lives, as he described it.

Sergey Gaidai, the governor of Lugansk Province - told Al Jazeera - that the liberation of the province and its suburbs from Russian forces has not yet begun, and the liberation operations will start soon, according to him.

"We will reach Luhansk and liberate it from the Russian occupier, after the liberation of Lyman, there on the other side of the river the outskirts of Lugansk, and soon you will see the reverse onslaught of the liberation of Luhansk," he added.

Roman Semenukha, the first deputy governor of Kharkiv Province - told Al Jazeera - that his country's forces have taken control of new sites near the Russian border, and are trying to expel Russian forces from Kubinsk.

"We will continue to advance until we bring the Russian forces to the administrative border with Russia, and we will liberate all the outskirts of Kharkiv from the Russian occupier," he added.


For his part, Alexander Vilkul, head of the Military Regional Administration in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih, said that the military successes of his country's army are linked to the good planning of military operations and the heroism of soldiers, as he put it.

Falkul added - in a statement to Al Jazeera - "We know very well their number, type of armament and whereabouts more than them, and their statements are not true, and we do not forget the proximity of the Crimea to the southern front from which reinforcements receive them continuously, and we are monitoring all that."

Failkol added that the areas adjacent to the battle fronts were well prepared for the possibility of Russia's use of nuclear weapons or any nuclear disaster, as he described it.

Intrusion Prevention

On the other hand, Andrei Maruchko, a spokesman for the separatists in Lugansk, announced that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers, backed by about 10 military vehicles, tried to penetrate the borders of the region, and the Russian forces managed to confront the breach and push the Ukrainian forces far from the border.

Maruchko said - earlier - that the Ukrainian forces had crossed the administrative border of Lugansk province in the Lyschansk axis.

On the Russian side of the border, the mayor of Russia's Belgorod region announced that a woman had been killed by Ukrainian artillery.

The Russian official added that the bombing led to the destruction of buildings in the center of the village of Golovchino, as the relevant authorities rushed to inspect the targeted area.

And the Russian Defense Ministry said - Monday evening - that the Ukrainian forces penetrated its defenses on the Zolotaya Balka and Alexandrovka axes, "thanks to the numerical superiority in the tank units."

The ministry announced that the Russian army targeted Ukrainian forces on the axes of Kobyansk, Liman, Artyomovsk and Donetsk.

The struggle of values

On the other hand, French Prime Minister Elizabeth Born said that the war in Ukraine is not just a conflict between two countries, but a fight for values, as she put it.

In a speech to parliamentarians, Bourne called for the continuation of sanctions against Russia, to prevent it from financing its attack on Ukraine, explaining that the goal from the beginning was to make Russia unable to bear the cost of the war.