Ukraine invasion: Russia ‘captures’ Kherson

Ukrainian and Russian troops are continuing to battle for control of key cities including Kherson and Mariupol in the south as the war enters its second week.

The fate of Kherson on the Black Sea coast is still unclear after the US denied Russian claims that it had fallen to Vladimir Putin’s forces, insisting fighting was ongoing.

On Thursday night, it emerged in the south that Russian soldiers opened fire in the town of Energodar, next to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station – Europe’s largest – and were trying to seize control of the facility. Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, about 60 miles north of the capital Kyiv.

It comes as leaders in Mariupol warned: “we are being destroyed” in a “genocide” after attacks wiped out water and power supplies.

Russian tanks entered Kherson on Wednesday and Ukrainian officials said President Putin’s forces had seized the local government headquarters, in what is a vital Black Sea port of 280,000 people.

However, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces said Kherson had not been captured, the UK said the situation was unclear, and the US said Russian troops had not yet taken the city, though they could use it for potentially moving further west to Mykolaiv and then Odessa.

Speaking to Sky News, one resident trapped in her Kherson apartment described seeing soldiers “all over the city” and hearing “a lot of explosions… late at night and early in the morning”. If Kherson does fall, it would be Russia’s first seizure of a major Ukrainian city.