Despite the great resistance of the Ukrainian Army, the Russian troops of Vladimir Putin do not stop their advance. This Wednesday Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the strategic city of Kherson, located in the south of the country, fell into the hands of Russian forces.
“There is no Ukrainian army here (…) The city is surrounded”said the mayor of the city, Igor Kolykhaevwho indicated that the local forces withdrew from the city towards Mykolaivin the northwest of the country.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov also spoke out and confirmed that the Russian armed forces had taken full control of Kherson.
Kolykhaev also revealed that a command of ten armed Russian officers, including the commander of that group, entered the city hall building on Wednesday. According to the information handled by the local authorities, the intention of the Russians would be to establish an administration similar to those installed in the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the east.
As Russian forces pushed deeper into the city, residents took refuge in their homes. Kolykhaev reported that the armed clashes left residents with power cuts, food and medicine shortages, and bodies strewn in the streets. According to slogan The New York Times, the mayor said up to 300 people may have been killed, including civilians and Ukrainian defense troops.
He also commented that many of the bodies are unrecognizable because the invading forces used high-caliber weapons. For this reason, the volunteers had to bury them in mass graves.
“I have called in volunteers to help collect the bodies and we are going to bury them immediately because many of the bodies have been vandalized,” the mayor said.
A video posted on social media shows a Kherson resident waving a Ukrainian flag in front of three armored vehicles of Russian troops, a few meters from a local government administrative building.
In another publication, a neighbor filmed from the sale of her house the moment when the Russian tanks circulated through the streets of Kherson. “The fascists are in my hometown”he whipped
Despite having taken control of the city, the invading forces continued to receive strong resistance from the local defense forces.
The American newspaper reported that advisers to President Volodimir Zelensky have so far neither confirmed nor denied Kherson’s capture.
With 300,000 inhabitantsKherson, a city located in the northwest of the Crimean peninsula, near the Black Seais considered a strategic city because it would allow Russian forces extend their control on the southern coast of the Ukraine and push their advance westward. More specifically to the city of Odessa, an important local port.
This way, Kherson would be the largest city taken by Putin’s troops since the invasion began on Thursday last week.
For its part, the Pentagon reported that the advance of a Russian military convoy towards Kiev was stalled between the last 24 and 36 hours by the Ukrainian resistance and because the Russians would be regrouping and evaluating the progress they have not achieved. “We have some indications, nothing that we can independently verify 100%, but there are some indications, that the Ukrainians have actually tried to slow down that convoy,” said the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirbyat a press conference.
The US official added that another of the reasons for the stagnation of that military caravan, which is advancing from the north towards the Ukrainian capital, they are “logistical and maintenance challenges” that the Russians had not anticipated.
Meanwhile, in the south, “it appears that the Russian forces are generally facing less resistance than in the north,” said the spokesman.
Regarding the situation in Mariupol, Kirby said that the Russian forces are making progress. However, he clarified: “We do not believe that (the Russians) are in the center of the city, we have all kinds of indications that Mariupol will be defended.”
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