The Kremlin stressed, on Monday, that the Ukrainian city of Kherson belongs to Russia, in response to the arrival of President Volodymyr Zelensky in this city in southern Ukraine a few days after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
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In response to a question about the Ukrainian president’s trip to Kherson, the Kremlin, for its part, continued to emphasize that the city, the capital of the region of the same name that Moscow claims to annex, belongs to Russia.
“We will not comment, you know very well that this is the territory of the Russian Federation,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Kherson was the first major city and only regional center to fall after the Russian invasion that began at the end of February, and the forced withdrawal of troops from Moscow in the face of pressure from a Ukrainian counterattack was a disdain for Vladimir Putin, who ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists last month.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that “the coming months will be difficult” for Ukraine.
“We must not make the mistake of underestimating Russia,” he declared at a press conference in The Hague.
“Putin’s goal is to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter,” he said. The Russian military, which is struggling on the ground, has in recent weeks carried out several waves of massive strikes with missiles and kamikaze aircraft on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, in particular on power grids.
