Officials appointed by Moscow flee as Ukrainian forces advance on Kherson

A man stands next to his car that was damaged after an overnight Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

Moscow-appointed authorities have fled the capital of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region along with tens of thousands of residents as Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s hold on the city on Thursday while fighting also intensified in the country’s east.

Amid the battles, a senior Russian official warned that Western commercial satellites used for military purposes in support of Ukraine were a “legitimate target for a retaliatory strike”.