Putin’s Land Grab Fails to Ruffle This Besieged Ukraine Port City
- Mykolayiv governor sees negotiation ploy in Putin move
- Says as few as 30 took part in sham referenda in his region
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As Russia’s President Vladimir Putin formalized his annexation of a swathe of Ukrainian territory on Friday, the governor of Mykolayiv, a southern town under brutal bombardment since the start of the war, dismissed the move with a weary shrug.
“I don’t think it will change anything,” Vitaliy Kim said, speaking by video call from an office in his heavily damaged town. “People in Kherson and Mykolayiv region don’t want to go to Russia.”