Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has asked military chiefs to draw up plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia, the country’s defence minister said. Zelenskiy has ordered his military to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said.
Ukraine has warned residents in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to evacuate as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive to retake the area. The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were occupied by Russian troops in late February after they crossed the bridge from Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said: “It’s clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling... and we therefore urge [people] to evacuate urgently.”
