The counteroffensive advance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the south has slowed down due to rainy weather, Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov said.

"In the south also we continue our counteroffensive campaign. Right now, with some kind of weather conditions, I mean rainy, it makes us a little bit slower. But we are using our tactics to take our villages, meters and kilometers step by step, and we will continue to do it," he said in an interview with Fox News.

At the same time, the minister said he does not believe that the Russian forces would conduct a street fighting campaign in Kherson, because it is not useful for them.

"You know that we control all bridges across Dnipro using the United States' systems, like HIMARS, and also other kinds of MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems] like M270 especially and 155mm artillery. […] For them it is a real risk to stay in Kherson, because they will not have a chance to flee out, like they did it in Kharkiv direction, for example, in Izium or other cities," Reznikov said.