KHERSON, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office says fighting is still occurring around the port city of Kherson, which Russian officials have said is in their “complete control.”
Zelenskyy’s office told The Associated Press that it could not comment on the situation there while the battle was still being waged.
But the mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, said Russian soldiers were in the city and came to the city administration building. He said he asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow them to gather up the bodies from the streets.
“I simply asked them not to shoot at people,” Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said in a statement. “We don’t have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE.”
Kherson, a city of 300,000, is strategically located on the banks of the Dnieper River near where it flows into the Black Sea. If Russian troops take the city, they could unblock a water canal and restore water supplies to the Crimean Peninsula.
The battle in the Kherson region began last Thursday, the first day of the invasion, and by the next day the Russian forces were able to take a bridge that connects the city with the territory on the western bank.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.