A senior Ukrainian defense official has expressed confidence the country's troops will take back the capital of the southern region of Kherson.

Russia announced that its forces in the region had begun to move east from areas on the western side of the Dnipro River.

Ukraine's deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar took to social media to caution that Russia's words should not be trusted. She added that Ukrainian troops would carefully advance toward the city of Kherson.

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in a social media post on Thursday the likely withdrawal of Russian forces is the result of "active actions" by Ukrainian troops.

He added that in Kherson, Ukrainian troops had destroyed logistics routes and disrupted the Russian military command system, leaving the enemy with no option but to flee.

Zaluzhnyi wrote Ukrainian troops had recaptured roughly 1,380 square kilometers of territory in the region since October 1, including 12 settlements on Wednesday.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also tweeted on Thursday that Russian forces want to "turn Kherson into a 'city of death.'"

He warned, "This is what 'Russian world' looks like: came, robbed, celebrated, killed 'witnesses', left ruins and left."