Russian troops take control of Ukrainian key port city of Kherson

*Fear over Kyiv as Kherson has “conclusively fallen” to Russian power

*Kharkiv remains under heavy bombardment

*Russia speaks on mission in Ukraine plus pre-operation adddress

Vladimir Putin had warned the international community of “consequences greater than any you have faced in history” over any attempted interference as he declared the start of his military operations in Ukraine last Thursday 24 February, 2022.

Russian troops, which the Reuters’ report Thursday said were in the centre of the Ukrainian port city of Kherson, have captured the city that is considered key and strategic to the country’s life system.

The entering into Kherson was coming, after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had captured a major urban centre, for the first time in its eight-day of military operation in the neighbouring country.

It was gathered that Brazil, China, India and United Arab Emirate (UAE) have continued to refuse to brand Russia’s expedition in Ukraine ‘invasion’ although they favour that both sides give peace a chance.

Certainly North Korea was one of the five nations that voted against 141 on the floor of United Nations General Assembly Wednesday asking Moscow to withdraw troops and cease fire in the country, whereas China was one of countries that abstained from voting, a diplomatic behaviour that watchers of event said mean a lot as 141, they say, may not actually be able to overcome sever as it looks.

According to Reuters, Russia’s defence ministry said it controlled Kherson on Wednesday but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded that Ukrainian forces continued to defend the Black Sea port of about 250,000 people.

“We are a people who broke the enemy’s plans in a week,” Zelenskiy said in a video address. “These plans had taken years to write – they are mean, with hatred for our country, for our people.”

This was the claim of Zelenskiy dismissing the claim that Russia had captured the city on Wednesday until Thursday it became clearer that the major urban centre has actually fallen to the military troops from Moscow.

The capture of Kherson, a strategic southern provincial capital where the Dnipro River flows into the Black Sea, would be the first significant urban centre to fall since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24.

Mayor Igor Kolykhayev said late on Wednesday that Russian troops were in the streets and had entered the council building. He called on civilians to walk through the streets only in daylight and in ones and twos.

“There were armed visitors in the city executive committee today,” he said in a statement. “I didn’t make any promises to them … I just asked them not to shoot people.”

Russia’s attack has led to a barrage of international sanctions that threaten the global economic recovery from the COVID pandemic, and stoked fears of wider conflict as Western countries send arms to help the Ukrainian military.

The U.S. State Department called on Putin and the Russian government to “immediately cease this bloodshed” and withdraw forces from Ukraine. It also accused Moscow of launching a “full war on media freedom and the truth” by blocking independent news outlets and social media to prevent Russians from hearing news of the invasion of Ukraine.

Fear over Kyiv

There is fear that the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, will soon fall as western intelligences, which suggested that Russia’s enormous military convoy near Kyiv “stalled”, will nevertheless come through with the progressive it is making.

This, aware of by people of Kyiv to be a bombardment that will surely come, has led to the scramble to get out of the city before it happens and the rush has become ever more desperate.

Even the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is said to be under continued bombardment overnight and Kherson had now been confirmed to be “conclusively fallen” under the control of Russian forces.

If after the fall of Kherson the Russian troops are successful with their war expedition in Kharkiv and eventual penetration of Kyiv, the war may be taking a new turn as mission to overthrow the government of Volodymyr Zelenskiy may be right on hand.

Russia speaks on mission in Ukraine: Details of Putin’s side

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

Bombing in Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million people, has left its centre a wasteland of ruined buildings and debris.

Russians have shelled the city of Izyum, about 120 km (75 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, killing six adults and two children, Ukraine’s parliament said. Reuters said it was unable to verify the casualties although it reported same.

The U.N. Human Rights Office has confirmed the deaths of 227 civilians and 525 injuries during the conflict as of midnight on March 1, cautioning that the real toll would be much higher due to reporting delays.

An explosion also rocked the Kyiv railway station where thousands of women and children were being evacuated. The blast was caused by wreckage from a downed Russian cruise missile, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser said, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

An investigation into possible war crimes will immediately be opened by the International Criminal Court, following requests by 39 of the court’s member states, an unprecedented number.

Russia has, however, denied targeting civilians although there have been widespread reports of civilian casualties and the shelling of residential areas.

On guarantee to the West

In a video showing a Sky TV press conference addressed by Russian President Vlamidir Putin before the invasion, he was asked about his statement that he has no intention of invading Ukraine and what it is that he thinks the West does not understand about Russia or about his intention and he said:

“Our actions will not depend on the negotiation.  They will depend on the unconditional compliance with the Russian security demands and its historical contacts.  In this sense, we have made it clear that any further need to move into the East is unacceptable.  There is nothing unclear about it.

“We are not deploying our missiles to the borders of the U.S.  No.  On the other hand, the U.S. is deploying its missiles close to our homes.  We are not demanding something excessive.  We are simply asking them not to deploy their system close to our homes.  What is so unusual or peculiar about that?

“What will the Americans think if we, for example, decided to come to the border between say Canada and the United States or Mexico and simply deploy our missiles over there?…We try not to remember the situation in Ukraine.  What created that? Who started the crisis?…This is a matter of security, not just history.  It is not the negotiations that matter.  It is the outcome, the result.  I have reiterated this many times and you were aware that we had not an inch to the East, that was NATO guarantee in 1990.  So, what became of that?  They fooled us.

“We’ve seen five waves of NATO expansion.  Now they are in Romania and Poland and they are deploying their systems over there.  That is what we are talking about.  Try to understand, we are not threatening anyone.  We did not come to the US borders or to the UK borders.  No.  They came to our borders and now they are saying Ukraine will also join NATO and deploy systems there or that NATO will come there on bilateral basis.  They will deploy their military bases and the entire systems there.  That’s what we are talking about.  And you keep demanding some guarantee from us.  You must give us the guarantee.  It is up to you and you must do this immediately, right now, instead to keep talking about this for decades.

“This is exactly what we mean, we are not threatening anybody,” Putin said.

On what he thinks the West does not understand about Russia or his intention

“You know, what you understand or what you don’t understand, sometimes to me, it seems we live in two different worlds. I was speaking about very obvious things, how can you not understand that?  You said you will not expand and you keep expanding.  You said we would have equal guarantee for everyone on a number of international agreements and then we see there is no equality, no equal security,” Putin said this while fielding questions from Journalist after his press conference address on the eve of its military operations in Ukraine, precisely Wednesday 23 February, 2022.

Vladimir Putin had warned the international community of “consequences greater than any you have faced in history” over any attempted interference as he declared the start of his military operations in Ukraine last Thursday 24 February, 2022.