A Russia-installed official in Ukraine’s Kherson region says the region’s administration will ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex the region.
The deputy head of the Russia-installed administration in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told reporters on Wednesday that there are no plans to create a self-proclaimed “Kherson People’s Republic,” akin to the ones in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. But, he said, there are plans to ask Putin to annex it.
“The city of Kherson is Russia,” Stremousov was quoted as saying by the state RIA Novosti news agency. “There will be no (Kherson People’s Republic) on the territory of the Kherson region, there will be no referendums. It will be a decree based on an appeal from the Kherson regional leadership to the Russian president, and there will be a request to include the region into a proper region of the Russian Federation.”
Taking control of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, and much of the surrounding region early on the war has been arguably Russia’s most significant gain in the war.
Ukrainian officials have speculated that Russia plans to stage a referendum in the region to declare its independence, similar to the ones that took place in eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014. Moscow recognized the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics two days before invading Ukraine and used it as a pretext to send troops to its ex-Soviet neighbor.
___
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukrainians make gains in east, stop Russian gas at one hub
— Wartime birth amid the air raid sirens in Ukraine hospital
— US, Western Europe fret over uncertain Ukraine war endgame
— Fighters appeal for evacuation of wounded from Mariupol mill
— House approves $40B in Ukraine aid, beefing up Biden request
— Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine’s 1st president, dies
— Ambassador nominee for Ukraine seeks quick embassy reopening
— Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
___
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator has stopped Russian shipments through a key hub in the east of the country.
Wednesday’s move was the first time natural gas supply has been affected by the war that began in February. It may force Russia to shift flows of its gas through territory controlled by Ukraine to reach its clients in Europe.
Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom initially said it couldn’t reroute the gas, though preliminary flow data suggested higher rates moving through a second station in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The pipeline operator said Russian shipments through its Novopskov hub, in an area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, would be cut because of interference from “occupying forces,” including the apparent siphoning of gas.
the Ukrainian pipeline operator said the hub handles about a third of Russian gas passing through Ukraine to Western Europe. Russia’s state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom put the figure at about a quarter.
___
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say a Russian rocket attack targeted the area around the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The city’s military administration say the rocket exploded Wednesday over the city, destroying infrastructure, but it didn’t say just what was destroyed.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the blast.
___
VATICAN CITY — The wives of two Ukrainian soldiers defending the Mariupol steel mill have met with Pope Francis and asked him to intervene to help arrange for a third-party evacuation of the troops before Russian soldiers might capture or kill them.
Kateryna Prokopenko and Yuliia Fedusiuk greeted Francis on Wednesday at the end of his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, they said Francis made no commitments but said he was praying for them.
Prokopenko, whose husband, Denys Prokopenko, is the commander of the Azov Regiment in the Azovstal mill, said the men would be willing to travel to a third country — they mentioned Turkey or Switzerland — if an evacuation could be organized.
She said: “Our soldiers are ready to be evacuated to a third country. They are ready to lay down their arms in case of evacuation to a third country. We all are ready to help them, I hope.”
The women have been in Italy seeking to rally international support for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff at Azovstal.
The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross have organized a series of evacuations of civilians from the mill, but not the troops, who remain holed up with diminishing water, food and medical supplies.
Fedusiuk said her husband, Arseniy Fedusiuk, had recently asked her to research how to survive without water.
“Water is running out. They have no food, no water, no medicine. They are dying every day. Every day one or two injured soldiers are dying,” she said.
__
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Russia’s foreign minister has made a surprise visit to the Gulf Arab state of Oman for meetings with officials about Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Sergey Lavrov briefed Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said on the war Wednesday in Muscat, Oman’s state-run news agency reported.
Sultan Haitham stressed the need to adhere to international law and intensify efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the crisis “in a manner that preserves the independence, sovereignty and coexistence of countries and peoples,” the statement added.
Oman, a country of 4.6 million on the Arabian Peninsula, has long served as an island of neutrality in a region torn by sectarian and political conflicts. Sultan Haitham has continued the policies of his predecessor in pursuing quiet diplomacy to help resolve international crises.
___
The British military says Ukraine’s targeting of Russian forces on Snake Island in the Black Sea is helping disrupt Moscow’s attempts to expand its influence in the Black Sea.
In a daily intelligence briefing posted to Twitter on Wednesday, the British Defense Ministry said “Russia repeatedly (is) trying to reinforce its exposed garrison located there.”
It added: “Ukraine has successfully struck Russian air defenses and resupply vessels with Bayraktar drones. Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea, following the Russian Navy’s retreat to Crimea after the loss of the Moskva.”
This corresponds to satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press this weekend showing the fighting there.
The British military warned: “If Russia consolidates its position on (Snake) Island with strategic air defense and coastal defense cruise missiles, they could dominate the northwestern Black Sea.”
___
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House emphatically approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package Tuesday as lawmakers beefed up President Joe Biden’s initial request, signaling a magnified, bipartisan commitment to thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody three-month-old invasion.
The measure sailed to passage by a lopsided 368-57 margin, providing $7 billion more than Biden’s request from April and dividing the increase evenly between defense and humanitarian programs.
The bill would give Ukraine military and economic assistance, help regional allies, replenish weapons the Pentagon has shipped overseas and provide $5 billion to address global food shortages caused by the war’s crippling of Ukraine’s normally robust production of many crops.
The new legislation would bring American support for the effort to nearly $54 billion, including the $13.6 billion in support Congress enacted in March.
That’s about $6 billion more than the U.S. spent on all its foreign and military aid in 2019, according to a January report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which studies issues for lawmakers.
___
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited some good news Tuesday from the front, where he said the Ukrainian military was gradually pushing the Russian troops away from Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces drove the Russians out of four villages to the northeast of Kharkiv as it tries to push them back toward the Russian border.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Ukrainian officials say Russian missiles pummeled the vital port of Odesa, apparently as part of efforts to disrupt supply lines and weapons shipments critical to Kyiv’s defense.
Ukraine’s ability to stymie a larger, better-armed Russian military has surprised many who had anticipated a much quicker conflict.
With the war now in its 11th week and Kyiv bogging down Russian forces in many places and even staging a counteroffensive in others, Ukraine’s foreign minister appeared to voice confidence that the country could expand its aims beyond merely pushing Russia back to areas it or its allies held on the day of Feb. 24 invasion.
