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It’s 3 p.m. in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know
Round 600 individuals are “being held hostage” in “rooms outfitted as torture chambers” and “pre-trial detention” amenities within the Russian-occupied Kherson area, in keeping with a Ukrainian official.
Of the 600, half are “being held hostage within the Kherson regional state administration constructing, in a pre-trial detention heart, and in vocational college No. 17 within the metropolis of Henichesk,” mentioned Tamila Tasheva, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s consultant to Crimea, mentioned throughout a televised deal with Tuesday, citing authorities companies and activists who lately fled the occupied territory.
CNN can’t independently confirm Tasheva’s declare and has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Protection for a response to the allegations.
These being held have been described by Tasheva as “civilian hostages, activists, journalists and army prisoners of warfare (POWs),” a few of whom she claimed have been taken from Kherson to Simferopol — the second largest metropolis in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Practically all of Kherson — positioned in southern Ukraine — has been occupied by Russia since its invasion in late February.
Ukrainian officers estimate no less than half the civilian inhabitants of Kherson has left the area in the course of the warfare.
In late Might, the Russian-installed administration in Kherson formally closed the area’s boundaries to surrounding Ukrainian government-controlled areas.
The transfer got here after exit factors from Kherson had already been unofficially blocked for weeks, in keeping with Ukrainian officers, who alleged that anybody wanting to depart the area was being despatched to Crimea.
Efforts by the Russian-installed administration in Kherson to place in place army bases, and advance what US and Ukrainian officers say could be a sham referendum to make the area a “Republic,” mirroring different Russian-backed areas in japanese Ukraine, are ongoing.