The mayor said Ukrainian troops did not remain in the southern city of Kherson as Russian troops invaded the parliamentary building more than a week after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Mayor of Kherson, Igor Korikaev, Said in a statement He urged Russian soldiers not to shoot civilians after they invaded the city’s administration building.
“I just asked them not to shoot people,” Korikaev said. “There are no Ukrainian troops in the city, only civilians and people want to live here.”
His remarks were made days after a fierce battle in Kherson, the 280,000 major port city on the Dnieper River near the Black Sea. As of March 1 According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ukraine has caused 752 civilian casualties, of which 227 have been killed and 525 have been injured.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have ruled Kherson as early as Wednesday morning, but an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was still being defended by Ukrainian troops.
By the end of Wednesday, Korikaev Said There was an “armed visitor on the city executive committee”.
“My team and I are peaceful people. We had no weapons and no attacks from our side,” he said in a statement.
“I didn’t make any promises to them … I just asked them not to shoot people,” the mayor wrote.
Korikaev did not identify whether the city had fallen into Russian troops, but said he was thinking of ways to “rebuild the city” after the attack. Ukrainian authorities have also not yet confirmed whether the city is currently under Russian control.
The mayor “showed that he was trying to secure the city and eliminate the effects of the aggression,” and authorities are experiencing “extreme” difficulties in delivering, collecting and burying food and medicine. Said. Dead.
“I’m only interested in the normal life of our city!” He said.
The mayor has outlined a list of six requirements that citizens must comply with to ensure that Russian troops are not “provoked.”
Citizens can only go to the city center in the afternoon and follow the restrictions from 8 pm to 6 am, he said. Only cars with food and medicine can go to the city, public transport will be reopened and certain workers will be able to get jobs.
The mayor urged citizens not to clash with Russian troops and said people could walk in groups of two or less. The car needs to drive slowly and the driver needs to be prepared to show what he is transporting at any time.
“It’s going well so far. The flag above us is in Ukrainian. And to keep it the same, these requirements will have to be met,” said the mayor.
Russian troops first invaded a strategically located city on February 24, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, Russian troops could unblock the canal and restore water to the Crimean Peninsula if it was occupied by Moscow.
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Isabel van Brugen is an award-winning journalist and currently a news reporter for The Epoch Times. She holds a Master’s degree in Newspaper Journalism from City University of London.