Zelenskyy tells Russian forces to flee as Ukraine starts its counteroffensive in Kherson, the 1st city Russia took

A volunteer soldier attends training outside Kyiv, Ukraine.

AP Photo/Andrew Kravchenko

• Zelenskyy told Russian forces: "If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee."
• He spoke as Ukraine confirmed a counteroffensive to retake Kherson and other southern regions.
• Zelenskyy has repeatedly committed to retaking land from Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Russian forces to flee as Ukraine begins its counteroffensive, including in the southern region of Kherson.

The city of Kherson was the first major city captured by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and Zelenskyy has repeatedly vowed that Ukraine would retake it. 

Ukraine teased a counteroffensive for weeks, and officials on Monday said that a counterattack had started.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern command, said that Ukraine had started "offensive actions" in the Kherson region and some other areas, though she did not give specifics.

Zelenskyy said in a speech on Monday night: "If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee. Go home."

He did not explicitly mention a new counteroffensive strategy in his speech. But he repeated his commitment to taking back all of Ukraine from Russia, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

"Ukraine is returning its own. And it will return the Kharkiv region, Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia region, Kherson region, Crimea, definitely our entire water area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov — from Zmiinyi Island to the Kerch Strait," he said.

"This will happen. This is ours. And just as our society understands it, I want the occupiers to understand it, too. There will be no place for them on Ukrainian land."

Russian forces took Kherson in early March.

They are accused of giving people there Russian passports in a bid to remove their Ukrainian identity, detaining local political leaders and replacing them with Russians, and reacting harshly to Ukrainian protesters.

Russia also announced plans to hold a referendum in Kherson on whether to join Russia, which Ukrainian officials say is a sham designed to help Russia forcibly take the city. This gave Ukraine's efforts urgency to retake the region before it is annexed. 

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