Top military officials in southern Ukraine are appealing for volunteers as forces seek to retake Kherson

The head of Ukraine’s military administration in the southern Mykolaiv region, northwest of Kherson, on Tuesday called for civilian volunteers as Ukrainian forces launch a long-awaited counteroffensive in the south.

Ukraine’s military announced on Monday that it had launched several front-line offensive operations in areas surrounding the strategically important port city of Kherson, where Russia made advances early in the war but which Kyiv has engaged to recover

Ukrainian children train on May 9, 2022, near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine.
(John Moore/Getty Images)

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“I am calling for volunteers,” Vitalii Kim said in a video translated by Pravda. “Contact the military, [find out] what they need

“Get involved in the work again, because soon we will recover Kherson,” he said.

There is heavy fighting in the south, and Fox News Digital has been unable to independently verify whether Ukrainian advances have yet been made.

The UK Ministry of Defense said that as of Monday “several brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” had “increased” artillery fire on the frontline and that Ukraine’s “long-range precision strikes” continue to disrupt Russian resupply efforts.

A Ukrainian tank runs over an infantryman during a training exercise on May 9, 2022, near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine.
(John Moore/Getty Images)

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Ukrainian troops began to show signs of gaining traction in the south after last month they destroyed two key bridges on which Russian forces rely heavily for supply routes across the Dnieper River to strongholds in the east .

While the UK defense ministry also said Russia has made “significant efforts” to bolster its forces on the western bank of the Dnieper River based on pontoon ferry crossings, the briefing also said that “most of the [Russian] Units around Kherson are likely undermanned and dependent on fragile supply lines.”

A view of the destroyed Fabrika shopping center in Kherson on July 20, 2022, amid ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine.
(Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

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Reports also emerged last week suggesting that Russia was bolstering its military hardware in southern Ukraine by moving a convoy of heavy military equipment into Crimea.

The Ukrainian military also claimed on Monday to have attacked a large Russian military base behind Russian lines in the Kherson region.

Russia has threatened to annex Kherson and said it plans to hold a referendum on the vote this fall.