First major Ukrainian city captured by Russian forces, says mayor

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Russian forces have seized Kherson in southern Ukraine, the city's mayor has said, as he issued a desperate appeal for food and medicine to be allowed in.

Igor Kolykhaiev, who also appealed to Russia for permission to transport the dead and wounded out from the port city, said on Facebook: "Without all this, the city will die."

It would make it the first, and biggest, city to fall yet in the invasion.

The development came as the UN refugee agency said one million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion, in the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.

Mr Kolykhaiev said Vladimir Putin's soldiers had forced their way into the city council building and enforced a curfew on residents.

He said he has asked them not to shoot civilians, and to allow crews to gather up bodies from the streets.

However, a senior US defence official disputed Russia has complete control of the city.

And the UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Thursday 'the military situation remained unclear'.

"I simply asked them not to shoot at people," Mr Kolykhaiev said in a statement.

"We don't have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to live."

The US countered the claim, with an official saying: "Our view is that Kherson is very much a contested city."

The MOD said: "Some Russian forces have entered the city of Kherson but the military situation remains unclear."

Images emerging from the city appear to confirm that.

CCTV footage has been revealed showing Russian combat vehicles and tanks on the central square of Kherson, as Moscow claimed the city had fallen as the first conquered in the invasion.

Kherson, a Black Sea shipbuilding city, has a population of around 280,000.

The BBC reported Mr