A view of the square outside the damaged local city hall of Kharkiv on March 1, 2022, destroyed as a result of Russian troop shelling. - The central square of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv. (Photo by Sergey BOBOK / AFP)
Russia claims it has taken full control over Kherson oblast (province) in Ukraine, Kann Correspondent Amichai Stein reported.
The capture of the entire oblast comes as Russian forces seized the port city, which has a population of 290,000 people, on March 3 following a three-day siege.
It was the first major city to fall following Moscow’s invasion.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Saturday of planning a fake referendum to create a pro-Moscow “people’s republic” in the southern Black Sea city of Kherson.
Due to “zero popular support,” such a referendum “will be fully staged,” he added.
“Severe sanctions against Russia must follow if they proceed. Kherson is & will always be Ukraine,” the minister added.
Kuleba drew a parallel with Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, when it held a referendum on joining Russia after deploying troops there.
The Kherson plan was following a “2014 playbook,” Kuleba said.
Ukraine’s ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova wrote on Telegram that Russian occupying forces were phoning lawmakers from the local legislature, asking them to vote for the plan.
“Russians now desperately try to organize a sham ‘referendum’ for a fake ‘people’s republic’ in Kherson,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.
Due to “zero popular support,” such a referendum “will be fully staged,” he added.
“Severe sanctions against Russia must follow if they proceed. Kherson is & will always be Ukraine,” the minister added.
Kuleba drew a parallel with Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, when it held a referendum on joining Russia after deploying troops ther
The Kherson plan was following a “2014 playbook,” Kuleba said.
Ukraine’s ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova wrote on Telegram that Russian occupying forces were phoning lawmakers from the local legislature, asking them to vote for the plan.
Denisova said such a referendum would be illegal on the occupied territory, since under Ukrainian law any issues over territory can only be resolved by a nationwide referendum.
Kherson was founded by a decree from Catherine the Great on 18 June 1778 on the high bank of the Dnieper as a central fortress of the Black Sea Fleet and was named after the most famous city-colony of Chersonesos, located in Crimea.
The ancient name “Chersonese” was from the ancient Greek dialect word chersonesos which meant peninsula, shore. This was the first city from the Greek project of Grigory Potemkin and Catherine II.
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