STORY: Pictures of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. According to Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers have launched a counter-offensive in the south of the country. While Ukraine spoke of breakthroughs at the front, Russia declared the advance to have – literally – failed miserably. These statements could not be independently verified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video address on Monday evening that Ukrainian troops were chasing the Russian army to the border. Ukraine is taking back what belongs to her. “It’s time for the Russian military to get out,” Zelensky said. According to the RIA news agency, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said Ukraine’s offensives in the south were unsuccessful. The Ukrainian soldiers suffered significant losses during their advances in the Mykolaiv and Cherson regions. The authorities in the port city of Mykolaiv, around 90 kilometers from Kherson, which is still under Ukrainian control, reported that two people had been killed in Russian attacks there. The sustained shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhia, fuels fears of a nuclear catastrophe. On Tuesday, the administration deployed by Russia in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar reported renewed shelling of the site where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is located. Two explosive devices are said to have detonated near a storage facility for spent fuel rods, the Russian news agency Tass reported. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for shelling the facility. In the coming days, international experts are to inspect the damage to the plant and check its safety.