A week after launching its invasion of Ukraine, Russia said its forces took control the first sizable city on Wednesday, seizing Kherson, in the south, as fighting raged around the country.
Russian forces have taken control of the city of nearly a quarter million people just north of Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, a Russian defense ministry spokesperson said.
Strategically located on the Dniepr river, the provincial capital was the biggest city to fall to Russian forces so far.
The Russian announcement came hours after Kherson's mayor Igor Kolykhayev said in a radio interview that the occupation of the city was underway.
Kolykhayev said the city suffered many civilian and military casualties. "We are still Ukrainian and still strong," he said in a Facebook Post. Ukraine denies the city was lost to the Russians. The mayor urged Kyiv to arrange a humanitarian corridor to remove the dead from the city.
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Ukraine civil guards in maneuvers ahead of the Russian invasion of Kherson
(Photo: Reuters)
Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of the southern Ukraine city of Mariupol, said on Wednesday that his city was under heavy shelling from Russian invasion troops.
"We are continuing to protect our country," he said while the Mariupol city council said the city was under Ukrainian control but locked in battles with Russian troops.
The council said on social media that Russian attackers were shelling civilian sites, including residential blocks, hospitals and dormitories for people displaced by fighting.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia is gathering troops closer and closer to the capital.
"We are preparing and will defend Kyiv!," he posted on social media. "Kyiv stands and will stand."
Witnesses in Kharkiv told Israeli media on Wednesday that their city was being flattened by consistent Russian missile attacks and gunfire was heard on the streets amid reports of Russian troops having landed in the city.
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A government building in Kharkiv after it was hit by Russian missiles on Tuesday
(Photo: AFP )
Ukraine's Defense Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said on Wednesday that his country was to receive a shipment of Stinger missiles that could target planes and Javelin anti-tank weapons as well as UAV's from Turkey.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Tuesday that the west should expedite the supply of weapons to his country.
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Firefighters work to contain a fire at the Economy Department building of Karazin Kharkiv National University
(Photo: AFP)
A second round of talks between Ukraine and Russian delegations were said to take place on Wednesday in efforts to reach a ceasefire after talks on Monday failed to yield results.
Russia's TASS news agency reported the talks will take place in Belarus, near the border with Poland and the Kremlin said its delegation would be on site to meet their Ukrainian counterparts.
Ukraine has not confirmed the reported schedule of talks and Zelensky on Tuesday said he would not return to negotiations until the Russian withhold their fire.