The Russian defence ministry on Wednesday said that the Ukrainian city of Kherson has fallen to the Russian army. The Russian army also made the same claim and said that it controls the city of Kherson, news agencies reported.
The UK ministry of defence earlier on Wednesday morning said that Ukrainian forces have resisted Russian advances in Kherson, Mariupol and Kharkiv but remain encircled on all sides.
“The city does not face shortages of food and essential goods. Negotiations between the Russian command, the administration of the city, and the region are under way to address issues of maintaining the functioning of social infrastructure facilities, ensuring law and order, as well as the safety of the population,” Igor Konashenkov, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, was quoted as saying by Russia-based news agency Sputnik News.
Starobelsk and Svatovo are other two cities which Russia aims to seize control of and its defence ministry said that the armies of the so-called republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are working together to capture those cities.
The coastal city of Mariupol also faced intense Russian shelling and according to Sputnik News, which quoted so-called republic Donetsk spokesperson Eduard Basurin, the city is blocked by anti-Ukrainian forces. Mariupol was also in the crosshairs of the Russian army after Russian president Vladimir Putin declared a ‘military operation’ in Ukraine.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko, according to a report in Reuters, said that forces continue to defend Mariupol. “We are fighting, we are not ceasing to defend our motherland,” he said. It was also pointed out that due to the rise in hostilities the injured could not be evacuated from Mariupol.
Kharkiv also bore the brunt of the conflict over the past 24 hours. Kharkiv faced intense shelling and the shelling of the government buildings also invited widespread international criticism of Russia.
News agency AFP reported that soon after Russian forces landed in Kharkiv immediate clashes began. Ukraine interior ministry official Anton Gerashchenko told news agencies that every part of Kharkiv city has been shelled.
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