Kremlin-based officials in occupied southern Ukraine celebrated Russia Day on Sunday and began issuing Russian passports to residents of a requested city as Moscow sought to consolidate its sovereignty over the occupied territories. In one of the main squares in the city of Kherson, Russian bands performed a concert to celebrate Russia Day, a celebration that marks the rise of Russia as a sovereign state after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to the Russian state news agency Novosti R . In the neighboring area of Zaporizhzhia, officials stationed in Moscow raised a Russian flag in the center of the city of Melitopol. Ukrainian media reported that few, if any, residents of the area attended Russia Day celebrations in the two cities. Also, the Russian-aligned administration in Melitopol began issuing Russian passports to those who applied for Russian citizenship. RIA Novosti published a video with a Moscow-backed official congratulating the young Russian citizens and telling them: “Russia is not going anywhere. We are here for good.” President Vladimir Putin issued a decree earlier this year expediting Russian citizenship for residents of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. In cities occupied to the south and east, Moscow also introduced the ruble as its official currency, broadcast Russian news programs, and took steps to introduce a Russian school curriculum. Kremlin administrators in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions have voiced plans to integrate the regions into Russia, despite protests and signs of insurgency among locals. Officials stationed in Russia on Sunday in Melitopolis reported an explosion in a rubbish bin near the city police headquarters and said two residents were injured. Another explosion occurred at a power plant in the city of Berdyansk, which is also under Russian control. The Kremlin-backed administration declared it a terrorist attack, and officials said electricity had been cut off in parts of the city. On the battlefield, Russia has said it is using missiles to destroy a large warehouse in western Ukraine containing anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons supplied to Kyiv by the United States and European countries. He said the attack took place near the town of Chortkiv in the Ternopil region. The governor of Ternopil, Volodymyr Toussaint, said Saturday night bombings in Chortkiv had injured 22 people, including seven women and a 12-year-old boy. Truss said four Russian missiles destroyed a military installation and four apartment buildings. Fierce fighting also erupted over control of Sievierodonetsk, an eastern city in Luhansk Oblast with a population of 100,000 that has been at the center of Russia’s campaign to seize Donbas, the industrial heart of Ukraine. The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, told the Telegram messaging service that Russian forces were bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk with up to 500 civilians, including 40 children. An official from the pro-Moscow, self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Luhansk, Rodion Mirosnik, said 300 to 400 Ukrainian soldiers also remained inside the plant. He said efforts were being made to evacuate civilians, but that troops would only be allowed to leave if they surrendered. Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic, said the Ukrainians stationed in Sievierodonetsk should be spared the hassle. “If I were them, I would already have made a decision to surrender,” he said. “We will achieve our goal in any case.”
