Russia has captured its first major city in Ukraine – the Black Sea port of Kherson -- after intense fighting. As the tanks rolled in, the city mayor urged residents to obey the 'armed visitors' and begged troops not to kill civilians, said western media reports.
According to the New York Times, Russian forces appeared to be making their biggest gains in the south, where they had nearly surrounded two strategic cities in an apparent bid to capture Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast, potentially cutting off the country from world shipping.
The next in line of assault could be Odessa, Ukraine's main port city and primary naval base. Amphibious landing ships were seen taking positions off the west coast of Crimea on Thursday morning as US officials warned a major assault from the sea could come later in the day.
The port city of Mariupol, in the south, also remained under Ukrainian control despite being all-but surrounded by Russian forces and coming under heavy bombardment. The Mayor of Mariupol said that Russian artillery fire has been so intense that they cannot even remove wounded people from the streets.
According to NYT, Russia’s advance was making less apparent progress against Kyiv, the capital, where a miles-long convoy of hundreds of military vehicles remained about 18 miles from the city center, thwarted by “staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion.”
Nonetheless, both Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine's two largest cities, came under heavy pounding overnight with missiles striking civilian areas - including a train station in the Ukrainian capital being used to evacuate people from the city. The station was also a shelter for those who cannot or have chosen not to leave.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, in a video address to the nation, gave an upbeat assessment of the war and called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance. 'We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,' he said, in the clip posted on social media. 'They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.' Zelensky did not comment on whether the Russians have seized several cities, including Kherson. 'If they went somewhere, then only temporarily; we'll drive them out,' he said.
