Kyiv: As part of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Russian forces have seized Kherson, the first major city in southern Ukraine, according to the city’s mayor Igor Kolykhaiev. In a Facebook post late on Wednesday night, he wrote, “It wasn’t a negotiation like was previously rumored. No one agreed with me about anything. However, indeed, there were armed visitors in the city’s local council today. My team and I are peaceful people, we had no weapons or aggression on our side.”
“We are NOT military! But I will hold the city and its functioning as long as I can,” he also wrote. “If the Russian soldiers and their leadership hear me. I ask: leave our city, stop shelling the civilians. You have already taken everything you wanted. Including human lives.”
In Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, a building of the military faculty of Sumy State University was shelled on Thursday morning, The Kyiv Independent quoted head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmytro Zhyvytsky as saying.
Also read: Indian student reportedly dies of stroke in war-hit Ukraine
Meanwhile, at least eight people, including two children, were killed in a residential building as a result of a Russian attack on the city of Izyum in Kharkiv Oblast.
According to the New York Times, Russian artillery and rocket fire have cut off essentials like electricity, medicine, water and heat to many Ukrainian communities, and turned a growing number of offices, homes, businesses and vehicles to crumpled, burning hulks.
On Wednesday, the British Ministry of Defence stated that the Russian forces have captured the city of Kherson in the south of Ukraine. In its latest intelligence report, the ministry said that “while Russian forces have moved into the centre of the southern city, overall gains have been ‘limited’ owing to ongoing logistical issues and strong Ukrainian resistance”.
Meanwhile, the BBC has launched a shortwave radio service in Ukraine that can be received clearly in Kyiv and some parts of Russia.
Earlier today, in yet another wave of measures to isolate Russia and choke its international money flow, the European Union (EU) blocked seven Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system and banned Kremlin-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik, media reports said.
The list comprised Russia’s second-biggest lender VTB Bank as well as Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sovcombank and VEB (Vnesheconombank), all of which were deemed to have direct financing links to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
India Blooms News Service
