Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday Russian armed forces have captured southern Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Kherson, as Moscow's invasion of the pro-Western country went into its seventh day.
"The Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional center of Kherson under full control," Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in televised remarks, as RIA news agency reported.
Heavy fighting was reported overnight into Wednesday in eastern and southern Ukraine as Russian forces pushed forward into day seven of their invasion of their western neighbor, according to Ukrainian media reports.
"Last night, when my team and I were at the mayor's office, the building was shelled," the head of city administration Igor Kolihaev said on Facebook Wednesday. "Everybody is alive. But I ask you again: do not leave the house. Do not provoke shooting by your actions and behavior. We are in a very difficult situation, there is no need to aggravate it."
"Today I will work to find a way to collect the dead, how to restore electricity, gas, water and heat where they are damaged. But I warn you right away: to complete these tasks today means to perform a miracle. We are all waiting for a miracle. We need it," he added
According to Kolihaev, Kherson is under fire, residential buildings and city facilities are on fire. The authorities are trying to coordinate the work of city services, but "it is now very difficult."
The Ukrinform news agency reported that Russian tanks fired on the offices of the Ukrainian intelligence agency SBU in Kherson.
Street fighting continues in Kherson and it is likely that the city has not been captured, said Deputy head of Ukrainian Presidential Office Oleksii Arestovich during his press conference.
Anton Herashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, spoke of multiple civilian deaths and said the populace of Kherson was defending the city with petrol bombs. According to local reports, it is surrounded by hostile forces.
A video posted by Herashchenko on social media on Wednesday showed a person in civilian clothes approaching a tank and then lifting Ukrainian flags from it and waving them in the air shouting "Glory to Ukraine!"
Herashchenko said the video showed civilians in the southern city of Kherson taking away flags from Russian invaders set up in the heart of the city.
The video appears to show a uniformed man first carrying the flags away from what looks like an administrative building to leave them on the tank. Reuters did not verify the video independently.
City officials said Russian soldiers have occupied the harbor and the train station and reported multiple dead, both among the civilian population and the Ukrainian armed forces. None of the reports could be independently confirmed.
Reports from the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, said that Russian forces attacked a military medical center. The UNIAN news agency reported that they engaged Ukrainian forces, which managed to take six new Russian 5-80BWM tanks.