Russian troops have seized Kherson, a provincial capital in the southern coastal part of Ukraine, the Defense Ministry announced in a briefing on Wednesday.
It also confirmed strikes on what it claimed to be part of Ukraine's psyops infrastructure, including a TV tower in Kiev. Kherson is a strategically important city on the Dneper River.
The ministry stated that civilian infrastructure in Kherson is operating normally, with no shortages of food or other items of necessity reported. It said the city's government and Russian military were engaged in talks on how to ensure order and public safety in the area, RT reported.
Russian forces in Ukraine had attacked more than 60 additional military locations, pushing the total number of destroyed elements of Ukrainian military infrastructure to over 1,500, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov reported.
Among the targets of Russian strikes was a TV tower in Kiev, the official confirmed. The Defense Ministry claims it was part of the military infrastructure used by Ukraine to wage psychological warfare. It was hit accurately by a precision munition that left nearby buildings undamaged, the spokesman said.
The Russian military announced its intention to attack a Ukrainian military psyop center and what it called relevant "technological sites" several hours before the strike on the tower. The Ukrainian side said five people were killed and five others injured in the attack, which also reportedly disrupted some television broadcasts in the country.
Capturing this southern city of almost 300,000 people would be a major victory for the Russian military, BBC reported.
It would be the biggest city to fall into Russian hands and strategically it would be a vital base for the military as it seeks to push further inland and west along the coast to the big port city of Odesa. Kherson is itself an important Black Sea port and an industrial centre.
What it means to capture Kherson
Controlling Kherson means controlling a major water source too. Ukraine dammed the North Crimean canal after Russia seized the Crimean peninsula, so most of the fresh water supply into Crimea was cut off, causing water shortages in the annexed region, BBC reported.
One of the first targets of Russia's military invasion was in unblocking that waterway and restoring water supplies to Crimea.
Russian vehicles entered Kherson's city centre overnight. Mayor Igor Kolyikhayev said this morning the city needed a miracle.
Russian troops advance
Russia has lost roughly 3 to 5 per cent of its tanks, aircraft, artillery and other military assets inside Ukraine, compared to Ukrainian losses of roughly 10 per cent of its capabilities, according to two US officials familiar with the latest intelligence reports, CNN reported.
But the stark imbalance underscores grim assessments from the US and western officials that despite a stiffer-than-expected resistance by Ukraine that has kept major cities out of Russian hands, it is still likely to be overwhelmed as Russia launches an intensified and less discriminate phase of its assault, CNN reported.
US officials believe that Russia is now changing tactics, an American official said. While Moscow started off with a more modern combined arms approach - one that also appeared to eschew targeting civilian infrastructure - it has now shifted to what this official called a strategy of "slow annihilation".
Another western official said that there is a sense that the conflict may be shifting to a grinding war of attrition - not the flash campaign that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US intelligence had suspected would cause the fall of Kiev in a matter of days, CNN reported.
Ukraine offers sympathies to India on death of Indian student by Russian shelling
Ukraine on Wednesday expressed its sympathies over the death of an Indian student killed in Kharkiv during the Russian shelling of the city on Tuesday.
Ukraine's Permanent Representative to UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said at the General Assembly Emergency Session, "Ukraine regrets that a student from India became an example of this challenge by the Russian armed forces and we offer our deepest sympathies to India and the relatives of the student.
"The Ukrainian and foreign citizens have become hostages of the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine."
Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, a 21-year-old student from Karnataka at the Kharkiv National Medical University, was killed on Tuesday.
There were an estimated 18,000 Indian students in Ukraine and some have gone to Hungary, Poland, Romania and Moldova. More than 5,000 Indians have been evacuated from those countries to India so far.
Belarus' Permanent Representative alleged that 100 Indian students who tried to enter Poland were beaten by that country's security forces and sent back.
(With inputs from IANS)
