Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast

Shortly after Kherson was captured, the Russian Ministry of Defence said talks between Russian forces and city administrators regarding the maintenance of order were underway. An agreement was reached in which the Ukrainian flag would still be hoisted in the city while Russia established the new administration. Kolykhaiev announced new conditions for the city's residents: citizens could only be outside during daytime and were forbidden to gather in groups. Additionally, cars were only being allowed to enter the city to supply food and medicine; these vehicles were to drive at minimum speeds and were subject to searches. Citizens were warned to not provoke Russian soldiers and obey any commands given.[2]

Russian servicemen took control of a military base of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Radensk, Kherson region

In the first days of the invasion, Russian forces established control over and unblocked the North Crimean Canal, effectively rescinding a longstanding water blockage imposed on Crimea by Ukraine after the 2014 Russian annexation of the peninsula.[3][4]

On 4 March, a Kherson resident appeared on CNN and alleged that Russian soldiers had raped 11 women in Kherson, with 6 of those women being killed, with a teenager among those raped and killed.[5][6] However, Hennadiy Lahuta, the head of the Ukrainian Kherson Regional State Administration, denied these allegations, stating that they were disinformation.[7]

On 5 March, Kolykhaiev stated that there was no armed resistance in the city and Russian troops were "quite settled". He requested humanitarian aid, stating that the city lacked power, water, and medicine.[8] Later that day, around 2,000 protesters marched in the city center. The protesters waved Ukrainian flags, sang the national anthem, and chanted patriotic slogans. A video showed Russian soldiers firing into the air to dissuade the protestors. There were also claims that the Russian force had a list of Ukrainian activists in the city that they wanted to capture.[9] On 9 March, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that Russia had detained more than 400 people in Kherson due to ongoing protests.[10]

On 12 March, Ukrainian officials claimed that Russia was planning to stage a referendum in Kherson to establish the Kherson People's Republic, similar to the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Serhiy Khlan, the deputy leader of the Kherson Oblast Council, claimed that the Russian military had called all the members of the council and asked them to cooperate.[11] Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ombudsman of Ukraine, stated that this referendum would be illegal because "under Ukrainian law any issues over territory can only be resolved by a nationwide referendum".[12] Later that day, the Kherson Oblast Council passed a resolution stating that the proposed referendum would be illegal.[13]

On 13 March, Ukrayinska Pravda, a Ukrainian newspaper, reported that several thousand people in Kherson took part in a protest.[14] Russian soldiers dispersed the protest with gunfire, stun grenades, and rubber bullets, injuring several people.[15][16]

On 23 March, Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast.[17][18] On 25 March, a senior US defense official claimed that the Russian forces no longer had full control of Kherson as the Ukrainians fought "fiercely" to recover the city.[19] However, Ukrainians in Kherson "questioned the Pentagon’s assessment, saying that the city remained in Russian hands".[20] CNN reported the situation in the city remained unchanged, citing residents confirming Kherson was under full Russian control. According to one resident, Russian forces had only lost a few villages in the province, while CNN earlier reported the Ukrainian counteroffensive was taking place in the northernmost part of the region.[21]

Volodymyr Saldo	Oleksandr Kobets

On 18 April, Igor Kastyukevich, a Russian politician and deputy of the 8th State Duma, was allegedly appointed by the Russian government as a de facto mayor for Russian forces on 2 March.[22][23] Kastyukevich denied the reports on his alleged appointment as a mayor of Kherson.[24]

On 26 April, both local authorities and Russian state media reported that Russian troops had taken over the city's administration headquarters and had appointed a new mayor,[25] former KGB agent Oleksandr Kobets, a new civilian-military regional administrator, ex-mayor Volodymyr Saldo.[26] The next day, Ukraine's Prosecutor General said that troops used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a further pro-Ukraine rally in the city centre.[25] In an indication of an intended split from Ukraine, on the 28th the new administration announced that from May it would switch the region’s payments to the Russian ruble. Citing unnamed reports about alleged discrimination of Russian speakers, its deputy head, Kirill Stremousov said that “reintegrating the Kherson region back into a Nazi Ukraine is out of the question".[27]

On 20 April, Regional media from Odessa reported that a pro-Russian blogger Valery Kuleshov was killed by Ukrainian partisans in Kherson.[28]

On 23 April 2022, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence claimed a strike on a Russian 49th Combined Arms Army command post in near Kherson, killed two generals and critically injuring one. The names of the two generals were not released.[29][30]

On 24 April, 2022, the Ukrainian Operational Command South reported that the Ukrainian army has liberated eight settlements in Kherson Oblast.[31]

On 25 April, 2022, Ihor Kolykhaiev announced that Russian forces took control of the Kherson City Council.[32]

On 26 April, Volodymyr Saldo was appointed governor of Kherson by the Russian military.[25] The start of his term was marked by protests against the Russian occupation of Kherson.[33] Following a Ukrainian missile attack on Kherson on 27 April, Saldo stated that "Kyiv abandoned people from Kherson".[34]

On 27 April, 2022, The Ukrainian Air Force struck the Kherson TV Tower with a missile temporarily forcing Russian television off-air.[35] On the same day, the Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyark Krai in Siberia approved the expropriation of grain from the Kherson region. Agricultural machinery from the occupied Kherson region was also transported to remote Russian lands, including Chechnya. [36] Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, has compared this to repeating the Holodomor, a famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. [37]

On 28 April, 2022, Russia began ordering to use rubles as currency.[38]

On 29 April, Saldo stated that official languages in the Kherson Oblast will be both Ukrainian and Russian and that the International Settlements Bank from South Ossetia will open 200 branches in the Kherson Oblast soon.[39]