An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Russia had not captured Kherson, a southern port city that Russia had earlier said it had seized.
Oleksiy Arestovych said fighting continued for the provincial capital of around a quarter of a million people, which sits at the Dnipro river's exit into the Black Sea.
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“The city has not fallen, our side continues to defend,” Arestovych told a live briefing broadcast on the website of the president’s office. “Fighting in the streets continues.”
“Information that Kherson has fallen and so on – that’s not true. Our military and local defenders continue resisting in the city and around it.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian army claimed it had taken control of Kherson as Moscow’s invasion of the pro-Western country went into its seventh day.
Kherson is around 130 kilometers from the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
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