Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine

Ukrainian officials say that tensions are growing in the southern Kherson region as Russian forces try to both avoid the impact of long-range Ukrainian weaponry and reinforce their defensive positions.

Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of Kherson civil military administration, said Tuesday that “the Russians are gradually transferring personnel, battalion tactical groups and equipment to Kherson.”

Khlan said that after the destruction of two bridges across the Dnipro river, a large accumulation of traffic had built up at the bridge next to a hydroelectric plant in Kakhovka.

Khlan said there was a great danger that there could be street battles in Kherson, though Ukrainian forces are still a distance from population centers in the region.

Separately, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Russian forces had experienced an accident when unloading a train of ammunition and equipment on Monday at the Kalanchak railway station in the Kherson region. They had set up a smoke screen to hide the unloading, but there was then an explosion and Russian troops scattered, according to Ukraine.  

The directorate also provided more details about a reported explosion at Brylivka station on the night of July 29. It claimed that a train of more than 40 wagons with manpower, equipment and ammunition was struck.

The Ukrainian military said that the Russian military had evicted residents from their houses near the railway station so that the locals would not inform Ukrainian forces about the movement of Russian army equipment.

Fighting also continues in the north of the Kherson region. Dmytro Butriy, acting head of Kherson region military administration, said 53 settlements had been taken back from the Russians, but almost the whole area was under constant shelling.

“The situation in these villages is catastrophic,” he said.