UK warns Russia planning to install pro-Moscow government in captured Kherson

By AP 15 March 2022, 10:59 am

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Protestors hold signs reading "Kherson is Ukraine!" and "NATO, close Ukraine's sky" during a demonstration in support of Ukraine and to protest against Russia's invasion of the country, on the Plaza Catalunya square in Barcelona, on March 6, 2022. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

LONDON — Britain’s defense ministry says Russia may be planning to install a pro-Moscow government in Kherson, a Ukrainian city it has occupied, as it attempts to assert “political control” over areas of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense says Russia “may seek to stage a ‘referendum’ in Kherson in an attempt to legitimize the area as a ‘breakaway republic’ similar to Donetsk and Luhansk and Crimea.”

UK Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly says any attempt at local referendums would “be another attempt to put a veneer of credibility on what is an unacceptable, unjustified illegal invasion.”

In an intelligence update, the defense ministry says protests have been held against occupying Russian forces in the cities of Melitopol, Berdyansk and Kherson, where troops fired warning shots at demonstrators on Monday.

It says Russia has reportedly installed its own mayor in the southern city Melitopol following the alleged abduction of her predecessor on Friday, and the mayor of another city, Dniprorudne, has also reportedly been abducted by Russian forces.