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In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the Russian army claims it has captured the city but its mayor says it is still held by Ukrainian forces.
On Wednesday morning, Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had taken full control of Kherson, a provincial capital of around a quarter of a million people on the southern front.
If the Russian army’s claims are true, then Kherson would be the first sizeable city in Ukraine to be taken by Russian forces so far.
Heavy fighting had been reported overnight in the city, where the mayor said Russian forces had taken control of the railway station and the port by the early hours of Wednesday.
Videos shared on social media show Russian military vehicles and soldiers patrolling the streets.
The regional governor of Kherson said overnight that it was surrounded, under fire, and Russian troops were looting shops and pharmacies.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president, Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said street fighting was going on in the port. He said on Wednesday morning:
The city has not fallen, our side continues to defend.
In a set of televised remarks, the Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said:
The Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional centre of Kherson under full control.
He claimed public services and transport in Kherson were operating as usual, and that talks were under way between the Russian army and local authorities.
But the city’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, appeared to contradict the Russian army’s claims, saying that Kherson remained under Ukrainian control.
Kolykhaiev said in a Facebook post:
We are still Ukraine. Still firm.
The mayor said he needed to find a way to “collect the (bodies of the) dead” and “restore electricity, gas, water and heating where they are damaged”, adding:
But I warn you right away: to complete these tasks today means to perform a miracle.
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