The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, Igor Kolykhayev on Wednesday said Russian troops were in the streets and had forced their way into the city council building.
Ukraine's government had earlier played down reports that Kherson had fallen into Russian hands, which would be the first sizeable city to do so since the invasion began last week.
Kolykhayev urged Russian soldiers not to shoot at civilians and publicly called on civilians to walk through the streets only in daylight and in ones and twos.
"We do not have the Armed Forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to LIVE here!" he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Chris Reese)
