Ukraine has stepped up its campaign to retake Russian-controlled regions in the south by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas. Ukrainian planes struck five Russian strongholds around Kherson and another nearby city on Thursday, its military claimed. Kyiv said it had also retaken some small settlements on the Kherson region’s northern edge, writes The Guardian.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south is “gathering momentum”, according to British defence and intelligence officials. Ukraine has virtually cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, leaving thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnieper River “highly vulnerable” and isolated, the UK ministry of defence said.

Residents of Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region have been urged to evacuate. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said people risked being cut off from “power, water, food and medical supplies, heating and communication” if they stayed in the area.

5 people were killed and at least 25 injured when Russian missiles struck the hangars of an aviation enterprise in Kropyvnytskyi, north of Mykolaiv.

At least 2 people were killed in the Donetsk town of Toretsk on Thursday, when a 5-storey building collapsed after a Russian missile strike.

2 people in the southern seaside town of Koblevo were blown up by a sea mine while swimming despite a ban, said the Mykolaiv regional governor, Vitaliy Kim.