On Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the Russian troops fully restored the forward edge of the Kherson defenses after the Ukrainian army's failed attempt to break through the defense line.

Russian forces thwarted the Ukrainian army's attempts to cross the Zherebets River in the Krasny Liman area, pushing the Ukrainian army back to its initial positions, Konashenkov reported.

"The Russian military command committed a tank reserve to action and carried out ambush operations, inflicting heavy damage on them, as a result of which Ukrainian army units fled the battlefield chaotically," the spokesman said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said Thursday that Ukrainian forces mounted 15 attacks on Russian military strongholds in the Kherson region.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to introduce martial law in the Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Power plants

A Russian-installed official in the Kherson region, Vladimir Leontyev, said Thursday Ukrainian forces had launched five missile strikes against the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station about 70 km from the Kherson city.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with the intent of blowing it up, in what would amount to a "catastrophe on a grand scale".

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday its forces continued to hit military and energy targets in Ukraine over the last 24 hours.

Escalated tension

Putin on Thursday inspected a training ground for mobilized troops, and he ordered all Russia's regions to do more to support army needs and stressed that all mobilized men needed to be sent to the front with proper equipment.

Oleksei Hromov, Ukrainian Army's general staff, said the Russian forces could have a heightened chance to attack from Belarus to cut supply routes for Western weapons and equipment, adding that Russia was deploying aircraft and troops in Belarus.

Ukrainian authorities said missile and drone strikes started fires in the southern city of Mykolaiv, with four drones hitting a school. Another school in Komyshuvakha, a village in Zaporizhzhia, also took four drone strikes.

(With input from agencies)