Conflicting reports emerge on whether Russia is still in full control of Kherson.

Russian forces no longer have full control of Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city that President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces managed to capture as part of his invasion, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday.

Ukrainian forces are now fighting fiercely in Kherson and pushing back Russian gains there, again making the strategically important port city “contested territory,” the official told reporters during a briefing.

That contradicts a statement released on Friday by Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian military’s General Staff, who claimed that the Kherson region was “under full control.”

Ukrainians in Kherson and Ukrainian officials also questioned the Pentagon’s assessment, saying that the city appeared to remain firmly in Russian hands, though Ukrainian forces are fighting across the broader Kherson region. Read more

@nytimes