MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Russia continued its assault on Ukrainian cities overnight, with significant attacks on the capital, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv in the northeast, and the southeastern port of Mariupol, according to assessments by the British Ministry of Defense.
Russian state media, citing Russian defense officials, said Moscow’s troops controlled Kherson, a vital port linking the Black Sea and Dnieper River. But Kherson’s mayor, while confirming that enemy tanks and troops were in the city, said it was still in Ukrainian hands. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said via WhatsApp that battles are going on now and “the city is not captured totally.”
Russian troops continued to meet staunch resistance from Ukrainian military and civilian fighters, which, along with ongoing logistical struggles, limited their gains over the previous 24 hours.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, endured another night of airstrikes, with social media videos, which could not be immediately verified, purporting to show explosions at the regional police headquarters and in residential areas. Russian paratroopers had landed and engaged Ukrainians in a firefight at a medical center, a regional official said.
In Kherson, videos confirmed by The Washington Post showed heavy fighting, with a strike on an apartment building as well as Russian tanks rolling into a residential area.
In a Facebook message, Mayor Igor Kolykhayev urged residents to remain indoors and pledged to keep the city running. The first priorities, he said, were restoring electricity, water and heat where it had been lost and collecting the dead. “Last night, when my team and I were at the mayor’s office, the building was shelled. Everybody is alive,” he wrote. “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.”
He ended: “We are all waiting for a miracle. We need it.”