"The situation in the area of the special military operation can be described as tense. The enemy is not abandoning its attempts to attack Russian troop positions," General Sergey Surovikin, who has been in charge of operations in Ukraine for the past 10 days, told state television Rossiya 24.

Ukrainian forces mounted a counter-offensive in the south towards the end of the summer and have been pushing closer and closer to the city of Kherson, which is occupied by Moscow.

Russia's army is preparing to evacuate civilians from the city, the Russian military commander for Ukraine operations said on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the Russian military said it had recaptured territory in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine, the first gains in that area since Moscow's forces were pushed back in the sweeping counter-offensive.