Ukraine makes air strikes to occupy occupied Kherson
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AFP, HELSINKI and LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine
Ukraine launched new airstrikes yesterday on Russian stations in the conquered southern region of Kherson, the country’s army said after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski reiterated that Kiev’s troops were “holding on” to the east of the country.
Ukraine is trying to counterattack Kherson, one of the first areas occupied by Russia since the February 24 attack, when Kiev forces fight in the eastern Donbass region.
Zelenski said in his speech on Thursday that several “Donbass cities, which the occupiers now consider to be key targets, are holding on”.
Photo: REUTERS
He added that Ukrainian forces have made positive progress in the Zaporizhzia and Kharkiv regions outside the Donbas and are “liberating our country.”
Ukraine’s defense ministry said yesterday it struck Russian military stations in Kherson, just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and among the first territories that Russia conquered in February.
“Our aircraft made a series of attacks on enemy bases, equipment and personnel gathering sites and field depots in five different locations in the Kherson region,” the statement said.
Moscow authorities in occupied Kherson have held a referendum on integration into Russia, reflecting a controversial vote in Crimea in 2014.
Ukraine and the West have separately condemned a pro-Moscow court in the People’s Republic of Donetsk, which sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan to death for fighting for Ukraine and called the proceedings a hoax and a violation of the rules of war.
The court found three fighters guilty of attempting a violent coup, a crime punishable by death in an unrecognized eastern republic.
The men were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said the accused – Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun – have to be shot.
At the same time, Helsinki is in a hurry to increase security at its Russian border to protect the country from hybrid threats, the Interior Ministry says.
Fearing that Moscow could use migrants for political pressure, Helsinki is planning changes to the law that would make it easier to build heavier fences on its 1,300-kilometer eastern border.
“The aim of the bill is to improve the Border Guard’s ability to deal with hybrid threats,” said Anne Ihanus, an adviser to the Ministry of the Interior. “Ukraine’s war has contributed to increasing the urgency of the matter.”
The move took place weeks after the Nordic countries applied for NATO membership.
Separately, Britain said the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is in danger of a major cholera epidemic as medical services are likely to be close to collapse.
There is also likely to be a critical shortage of medicines in Kherson, the British Ministry of Defense wrote on Twitter.
Russia is having difficulty providing basic public services to the population of the Russian-occupied territories, it added.
Additional reports from AP and Reuters
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