Red carpet for Russia

Fallen Ukraine city ‘welcomes’ new overlords

KYIV: Pro-kremlin authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson have urged President Vladimir Putin to annex the region, while Moscow has accused Kyiv of shelling a Russian city in the latest flashpoint of the bloody invasion.

One person was killed in the shelling of Belgorod, a Russian town 40km north of the Ukraine border, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who said it was “the most difficult situation” facing the border region since Russia sent troops into Ukraine 11 weeks ago.

With war raging, fears of broader international implications swelled as gas supplies to energy-starved Europe were disrupted by a halt in Russian gas flow through Ukraine.

The stoppage caused supplies to plunge by 25 per cent in Germany, which depends on Russia for its energy and has rejected an immediate full embargo on Russian gas.

The developments came as Ukraine said its military was pushing Russian troops back from the city of Kharkiv in the northeast.

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 Mr Putin is ready for a long war.

Kherson, the first big Ukrainian city to fall, is north of Crimea, which itself was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of Kherson’s Moscowinstalled administration, said there would be a “request to make Kherson region a full subject of the Russian Federation”.

But the Kremlin replied it was up to Kherson residents to “determine their own fate”.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said Kyiv’s forces would liberate Kherson and “the invaders may ask to join even Mars or Jupiter”.

While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy framed the conflict as “war against tyranny”, Ukraine’s fierce fightback has come at a heavy cost.

In a rare release of battle casualty figures, Ukraine’s National Guard, which falls under the interior ministry, on Thursday said 561 of its members had been killed and nearly 1700 wounded.

Neither the defence ministry in Kyiv nor its counterpart in Moscow have provided official death counts, but in midApril Mr Zelenskyy said 2500 to 3000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.

Ukraine’s forces were boosted by what Kyiv said was the recapture of four villages around Kharkiv.

However, Ukraine is engaged in what appears to be an increasingly desperate effort to hold the Russian-speaking Donbas region in the east.