Russia seizes a key Ukrainian city as civilian attacks intensify
Russian forces have taken the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, a significant victory for Moscow after a string of military setbacks.
Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, confirmed Russian forces had landed in the city in a Facebook post written on Wednesday Russia-Ukraine war enters its eighth day.
“There were armed visitors in the city council today. My team and I are peaceful people, we had no weapons or aggression on our side.”
Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine along the Black Sea, its home to nearly 300,000. The capture of Kherson, strategically located at the mouth of the Dnipro River, would be the first significant city to fall since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24.
Explosions continued to rock the capital, Kyiv, and air raid sirens sounded amid fighting on the outskirts of the capital. Despite intense Russian shelling, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian control.
In his latest video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there had been no respite in Moscow’s shelling of his country since midnight but added that Ukraine’s forces had been successful in resisting the Kremlin’s initial plan of claiming a quick victor. “We have nothing to lose but our own freedom,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine is receiving arms supplies from its international allies daily since the attack.
Russia’s advance on Kyiv has made scant progress. “The main body of the large Russian column advancing on Kyiv remains over 30 km (19 miles) from the centre of the city having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion,” Britain’s defence ministry said in an intelligence update.
Ukrainian forces claimed killing more than 5,300 Russian troops whereas Russia says 498 of its troops have been killed in Ukraine since February 24. The figures could not be verified.
The conflict has displaced nearly one million people. “In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighboring countries,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, said.
