Russian forces have captured the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Local officials have confirmed that this is the first major urban center to be taken over by Russia since the Moscow attack a week ago.
According to media reports, the head of the regional administration, Gennady Lakhuta, wrote on the messaging service Telegram on Wednesday night that “(Russian) occupiers are present in all parts of the city and are very dangerous.”
The 290,000-strong strategic port city near the Black Sea came under siege as Russian forces continued their aggression on other urban centers.
The mayor of the port city, Igor Kolikhayev, announced talks with “armed guests”.
“We had no weapons and we were not aggressive,” Igor Kolyakhyev said in a Facebook post. We have shown that we are working to secure the city and to deal with the consequences of the attack. “
“We are facing a lot of difficulties in burying the dead, delivering food and medicine,” he said.
Russian forces have also bombed Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Displacement of 1 million citizens in seven days
On the other hand, the UN refugee agency announced on Thursday that one million citizens have been displaced from Ukraine in a week since the Russian invasion.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grande wrote in a tweet that “in just seven days, we have seen the displacement of one million citizens from Ukraine to neighboring countries.”
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for an “immediate withdrawal” of Russia from Ukraine.
According to the French news agency Media, after more than two days of heated debate on Wednesday, where the Ukrainian ambassador accused Russia of genocide, 141 out of 193 member states voted in favor of the resolution.
Thirty-five countries, including China, abstained and did not vote for or against the resolution, while Eritrea, Syria, North Korea and Belarus, including Russia, voted against.
The resolution condemned in the strongest terms the Russian attack on Ukraine, as well as the decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep his nuclear forces on alert.