Russia urged to annex Ukraine’s Kherson
Kyiv, Ukraine - Pro-Kremlin authorities in Ukraine’s Kherson said on Wednesday they will ask Russia to annex the region as Moscow seeks to shore up its gains in the increasingly drawnout and bloody war.
Gas supplies to energystarved Europe were also disrupted by a halt in Russian supplies flowing through Ukraine as the international shockwaves of the February 24 invasion continued.
The developments came as Ukraine said it was pushing Russian troops away from the country’s second city Kharkiv in the northeast but facing stiff resistance from the invading forces.
Russia has focused on eastern and southern Ukraine since it failed to take Kyiv in the first weeks after the February 24 invasion, and US intelligence has warned Putin is ready for a long war.
Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall after the Russian invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, is north of Crimea, which itself was annexed by Moscow in 2014 after an internationally-condemned vote.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of Kherson’s Moscow-installed civilian and military administration, said there would be a ‘request to make Kherson region a full subject of the Russian Federation’. Stremousov suggested the authorities would appeal directly to Putin without putting the move to a vote. But the Kremlin replied that it was up to the residents of Kherson to ‘determine their own fate’.
Kherson is just north of Crimea and essential for its water supplies. But Russia also appears set on creating a land bridge to Crimea from its own territory, with US intelligence suggesting it wants to go all the way across the southern coast to Moldova.
‘They come in waves’
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s forces were boosted by what Kyiv says is the recapture of four villages around Kharkiv
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Tuesday that he had ‘good news’ from Kharkiv and praised the ‘superhuman strength’ of Ukrainian defenders.
Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said on Wednesday that ‘ccupiers continue to focus their efforts on preventing the further advance of our troops towards the state border of Ukraine’ from Kharkiv.
But Ukraine is engaged in what appears to be an increasingly desperate effort to hold the Russian-speaking Donbas region in the east.
“They come in waves,” volunteer fighter Mykola said of the Russians’ repeated attempts to push south past a strategic river near a rural settlement called Bilogorivka.
US chips in $40bn
Ukraine has been pushing Western countries for more support on all fronts, with Washington the latest to step up.
As President Joe Biden warned that Ukraine would within days likely run out of funds to keep fighting, the US House of Representatives voted late on Tuesday to send a $40 billion aid package to the country.
“With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
The United States views it as increasingly likely that Putin will mobilise his entire country, including ordering martial law, and is counting on his perseverance to wear down Western support for Ukraine.
One of the key symbols of Ukrainian resistance has been the strategic port of Mariupol, where Ukraine says around 1,000 troops remain trapped in increasingly dire circumstances at the Azovstal steelworks.
The sprawling plant is the final bastion of Ukraine’s defiance in the devastated city, over which Russia now has almost complete control.
The US House of Representatives voted to send a US$40bn aid package to Ukraine as Joe Biden warned that Kyiv would run out of funds to keep fighting Russia