Russian commander admits to "tense situation" in Kherson due to Ukraine's counteroffensive

The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine made a rare acknowledgement of the pressures they were under from Ukrainian offensives to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow claims to have annexed just weeks ago.

In another sign of Russian concern, the Kremlin-installed chief of the strategic southern region of Kherson on October 18 announced an "organised, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the Dnipro River, Reuters reports.

"The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Sergei Surovikin, the Russian air force general now commanding Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel.

On Kherson, Surovikin said: "The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson."

Russian forces in Kherson have been driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km-long Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine.

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed council governing Zaporizhzhia, also in the south, said Ukraine's forces had intensified their overnight shelling of Russian-held Enerhodar - the town where many of the employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station live.

Artillery fire had hit the town's outskirts and there had been 10 strikes around a thermal power station, he said on the Telegram messaging app on October 18.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.

Both Ukraine and Russia have denied targeting civilians, although Ukraine has accused Russia's forces of war crimes.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he expected to return "soon" to Ukraine amid negotiations to establish a security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe's largest nuclear power station.

The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has proclaimed as annexed but only partly occupies, the other three being Kherson, and the eastern border provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk - together known as Donbas.

President Vladimir Putin proclaimed them as full-fledged regions of Russia after staging what Moscow called referendums in September, which Kyiv and Western governments denounced as illegal and coercive.