Russia Captures Key Port City of Kherson, Ukrainian Officials Confirm
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Seven days after the Kremlin ordered troops to invade Ukrainian territory, Russia has reportedly captured the key southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson as of this afternoon while its ground forces continue to press on toward the capital of Kyiv.
Kherson mayor Igor Kolykhaev seemed to confirm Wednesday that Russian forces had occupied the city, writing on Facebook that "there were armed visitors in the city council today." Russian military personnel have set a curfew from 20:00 to 06:00 local time (22:00 - 08:00 GMT), and only vehicles carrying basic necessities will be permitted to enter the city, Kolykhaev said. The Russian forces have limited public gatherings or movement to no more than two people.
"So far this is how it is. Ukrainian flag above us. And to keep it the same, these requirements must be met. I have nothing else to offer yet," he added.
However, earlier today U.S. defense officials claimed that Kherson "remains very much a contested city," BBC News reported.
Neighboring Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014, Kherson had been a tense battle ground this week before Russia seized it.
"The Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional centre of Kherson under full control," Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in televised comments Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine contested this claim. An adviser to President Zelensky told Reuters that street fighting had erupted and that Russia had yet to stabilize the area.
"The city has not fallen, our side continues to defend," adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said. Now, it appears that Russia has, in fact, taken Kherson.
Struggling to secure a single major population center for a week and facing a resilient Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces seem to be recalibrating their strategy this week, resorting to the indiscriminate air bombardment of cities.
Kharviv, Ukraine's second largest city in the east, has suffered perhaps the most severe damage. In the last 24 hours alone, authorities claimed 21 people were killed by shelling and air strikes there, according to Reuters. Kharviv and Kyiv, representing the eastern and northern fronts of the war, are both still controlled by Ukrainians.
As they transition to an increasingly aggressive strategy, Russian forces have hit civilian buildings such as hospitals, in possible violation of international law, as well as symbolic sites of national significance. Russia blasted the corner of Babyn Yar on Tuesday, a memorial on the outskirts of Kyiv commemorating the single most deadly mass execution of the Holocaust, as well as a Kyiv television tower, killing five.
After the first peace talks attempt between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations on the Belarus border failed, Russia reportedly sent more representatives for a second round but Zelensky insisted on a pause in the bombing as a pre-condition.
"It's necessary to at least stop bombing people, just stop the bombing and then sit down at the negotiating table," Ukraine's battered leader told Reuters and CNN.
The Russian army is reportedly encircling Kyiv gradually, after its advance stalled due to logistical issues, hitting suburbs with airstrikes and advancing infantry and tank columns. While many Ukrainians are sheltering underground in Kyiv, hundreds of thousands of civilians have evacuated to neighboring nations as the conflict has escalated.
As of Tuesday, at least 136 Ukrainians had died in the country, the UN human rights office projected. Casualties are mounting for the invaders as well, and at a much steeper rate. About 5,800 Russians have been killed in Ukraine so far, two Western officials told NBC News.
In response to Putin's aggression, western countries have vowed to inflict economic warfare and squeeze Russia out of international commerce and banking, with the goal of sowing serious domestic unrest and hopefully sparking an uprising that could pressure Putin to end the invasion or oust him from power.
While the brunt of the penalties wasn't supposed to kick in immediately, the value of Russia's currency, the ruble, tumbled to rock bottom lows this week. President Biden slammed the invasion in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, promising Putin that he would "pay a price."
"Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget," he said.
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It may now be a race to finish the job before the oligarchs call for an end to it.
What will finishing the job look like? Russia's only chance to rule Ukraine was to have their army met as liberators, and that is clearly not happening. It is just a matter of time before they are forced to leave and admit it was a bad idea.
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I don't know that this would be successful. Russia tried that in Afghanistan and they were in there for 10 years before they left. Their installed government didn't last long after they left. Don't believe this would be any different
You may very well be right.
Putin "holds all the cards" ... looks like he's down to using aces and kings to take down 2s and 3s.
Unfortunately, that is the match. Zelensky and his people, despite their problems with corruption gave the world a morality lesson and they have fought valiantly, but it is David vs Goliath and they are all alone in this.
Can not comprehend this. Trump, Manafort, Stone, Flynn, Bannon and the rest of the grifters all have Russian ties, all are in the 'Ring of Trump', all of whom at least tacitly support Putin.
Why did you put this up, Vic?
What I can't comprehend is your sad attempt to connect people to Russia. Hillary Clinton made it up. It's old news.
Why did you put this up, Vic?
Pick what up?
Now it get really ugly. Artillery and bombers against cities. Can only hope Russian really can't feed their soldiers and they just walk away or some sort of coup takes place.
Have we really tied up all of Russia's assets?
What about China? Are they helping Russia? What can Xi be thinking? I'll bet one thing he may be thinking is what if Taiwan fights back like Ukraine did?
Considering that China refused to sanction Russia and stated they would continue normal relations, I think that answers part of the question. There's even emerging intelligence reports that China asked Russia to wait on invading until after the Olympics were done, and the Olympics ended on Feb 20th and Russian invaded on Feb 24th.
I am concerned about Taiwan. How soon does China move there? I would think they would have already made their move if the world opinion had not been so strong against Russia. China, as I understand, is very concerned with their public reputation and the the simple fact that Russia was so wrong on world opinion for their Ukraine invasion that even Switzerland took a side could be making them hesitant to start their own actions against Taiwan.
So, you agree, there are lessons that China can learn from Ukraine?
Sure, they can learn to wipe out every last military asset Taiwan has before they set foot on the ground; and keep control of Taiwanese airspace.
I don't think the Chinese military is nearly as poorly led as the Russian military; and I don't think their troops will balk at making Taiwan a part of China again. These are people that share a common ancestry and language. More so than Ukraine and Russia.
China has definitely done more than enough recon with all of their flyovers of Taiwan.
I think China is waiting to see how the end game with Russia will turn out. If after everything is said and done things go back to relatively normal for Russia with the rest of the world; then China knows it can advance. If not; then China might bide it's time and use more subversive means to gain control Taiwan. Everybody already knows that China is trying to influence Taiwanese politics.
Frankly China would represent a much bigger problem for the world than Russia if sanctions were put into place. China produces how many of the worlds car, cell phone, and other electronic components? Simply shutting off the flow of those would cripple US production completely.
I get the feeling that Xi left Putin out to dry. Russia has the attention of the whole world; the amount of pressure being put on it is immense. I almost get the sense that Putin was expecting Xi to move on Taiwan once Russia had the US/NATO fully engaged. That would put a real dent in the forces the US could commit to former Soviet states that are NATO members. Those states are calling for US forces to protect them; not NATO. They know which country does all the heavy lifting in NATO. US being forced to pull forces to defend Japan, South Korea, and other allies in the Pacific from China might permanently fracture NATO.
I still think that China is a far greater threat than Russia. Xi is proving to be smarter than Putin- which makes him more dangerous.
I'm sure that Xi aims to make good on his pledge to bring Taiwan home. They have options on that. You are certainly right that the Chinese military is superior to the Russian version. That being said, what Zbigniew Brzezinski always feared has come to pass - China and Russia have formed a coalition in which they are united by shared grievances against the U.S. Xi and Putin have met dozens of times. They talk by phone regularly. There is plenty of reason to think Putin delayed his mauling of Ukraine so it wouldn’t distract from the pleasant picture Xi wanted to paint of his country hosting the Winter Olympics. How do we know that China will now buy every bit of gas he doesn’t sell to Europe? Beijing might even provide help for a Russian tech sector cut off from the West.