Heavy fighting is taking place in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, and there are conflicting reports about the start of the long-awaited Ukrainian counterattack.

“Today, we launched offensive actions in several directions, including in the Kherson region,” Nataliya Humenyuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Military Command, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Although the Ukrainian press seems to be nuanced, it unequivocally declares the beginning of a counteroffensive against the invading Russian troops in the south of the country.

“The ground counteroffensive has begun. The Ukrainian army broke through the first line of Russian defense in Kherson,” Kyiv Post journalists reported, Ukrainian Pravda reports. The Ukrainian press also writes that most of the bridges in the Kherson region have been destroyed in order to complicate the supply of the Russian occupation troops.

A group of Ukrainian military units on the southern frontline said that a regiment of pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk and the Russian paratroopers supporting it fled the battlefield.

The military group also released a video showing a suspected separatist soldier claiming to have breached the first line of defense.

Conflicting information about the Kherson offensive

But another source in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, quoted by “Ukrainian Pravda”, says that in some areas there are successes against the defense line of the Russian troops, but “it is too early to talk about something concrete, a large front.”

Ukrainian journalist Ilya Ponomarenko also urged caution at 1:00 p.m. Monday over an alleged breach of the front line in Kherson region, noting that the fighting was heavy after Ukrainian artillery shelled the positions of the invading forces overnight.

However, the Russian agency RIA Novosti reports that in the Russian-occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Region, evacuation of workplaces has been announced and people are heading to shelters.

The news is updated.