Ukrainian Port City Kherson Under Russian Control; A Look at Status of Other Major Cities As War Intensifies

The Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its second week, but experts are calling it a tactical failure so far with the main assault force stalled on a highway north of capital Kyiv. Other advances have also been halted on the outskirts of some cities, which the Russian forces are bombing into wastelands.

Despite a “grand plan” to topple the government in Kyiv, as informed by western countries, Russia has only managed to capture one Ukrainian city so far: the southern port city of Kherson, on Dnipro river. Russian forces entered the city on Wednesday. In an intelligence update, meanwhile, Britain’s defence ministry said, “The column (outside Kyiv) has made little discernible progress in over three days… Despite heavy shelling, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands.”

While Russia has failed to capture major Ukrainian cities, it has changed its game plan by increasing bombardment. At least 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 wounded since the invasion began, according to latest figures from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. More than 1 million people have fled the war-torn country following the invasion, said the UN on Thursday. Russia, too, has acknowledged that close to 500 of their soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

Here’s an update on the status of major Ukrainian cities and who has what so far:

1. KHERSONThe provincial capital of around 2,50,000 people is the first significant urban centre to fall. On Thursday, Russian forces fully captured the building of the Kherson Oblast Administration, according to governor Hennadiy Lahuta. On Wednesday, mayor Igor Kolykhayev said Russian troops were in the streets and had entered the council building. “I didn’t make any promises to them… I just asked them not to shoot people,” he said. The mayor said Kherson would maintain a strict 8 pm to to 6 am curfew and restrict traffic into the city to food and medicine deliveries. The city will also require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not to provoke troops. “The flag flying over us is Ukrainian and for it to stay that way, these demands must be observed,” he wrote in a Facebook post. The port city is strategically located on the banks of Dnieper river near where it flows into the Black Sea. The battle in the Kherson region began last Thursday on February 24, the first day of the invasion, and by the next day Russian forces were able to take a bridge that connects the city with territory on the western bank.
2. KYIVRussias 64-km convoy of tanks and other vehicles remains outside the capital and the seat of the Ukrainian government. The city has has been struck by deadly shelling. Military analysts said the condition of the attack force is further deteriorating. The advance on Kyiv has been rather not very organised and now they were more or less stuck, military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the AP in Moscow. In Borodyanka, a tiny town 60 km northwest of Kyiv, where locals had repelled a Russian assault, burnt out hulks of destroyed Russian armour were scattered on a highway, surrounded by buildings blasted into ruins.
3. KHARKIVSwathes of central Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million people and the second largest city, have been blasted into rubble. Mass evacuation could be seen in Kharkiv, where residents are desperate to escape shelling and bombardment. They have crowded the city’s train station and pressed onto trains.
4. MARIUPOLIn Mariupol, at least one teenager died and two more were wounded by apparent Russian shelling. The boys families said they had been playing soccer near a school. The main port of eastern Ukraine has been surrounded under heavy bombardment with no water or power. Officials said they could not evacuate the wounded. The city council compared the situation there to the World War II siege of Leningrad, calling it the “genocide of the Ukrainian people”. Britain’s defence ministry said the large city on the Azov Sea was encircled by Russian forces. Ukraine’s military also said Russian forces did not achieve the main goal of capturing Mariupol. Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless. “We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop,” he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
5. CHERNIHIVTwo cruise missiles hit a hospital in the northern city of Chernihiv, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN quoted the city’s chief health administrator, Serhiy Pivovar, as saying. The hospital’s main building was damaged and authorities were working to determine the casualty toll, he said.(With agency inputs)

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