The city of Kyiv was rocked by explosions early Thursday morning as Ukrainians fled the country and Russian troops continued their assault on cities across the country.
The Russian barrage had crippled Kherson on Wednesday and Moscow claimed that they had taken control of the port city.
The claim was contested by a US defense official who said the Black Sea port was “very much a contested city,” under the condition of anonymity.
Kherson Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said Russian soldiers in the city were not being met with resistance from Ukraine forces as it enacted a strict curfew and ordered civilians not to provoke troops.
“We don’t have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE,” Kolykhaev wrote on Facebook.
“These are not warriors of a superpower,” he said of Russian troops that had come to the city’s administration building. “These are confused children who have been used.”
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“The flag flying over us is Ukrainian,” he wrote.
Fighting in the port city of Mariupol had been constant, officials told an independent Russian news agency, as officials cracked down on free speech in Moscow.
Mariupol’s power and water supply have since been cut off.
“We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop,” Mayor Vadym Boychenko said.
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