The mayor of the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine said on Monday that Russian troops were pulling back after what he said was an attempted attack on the city’s airport.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the Russian military tried to “attack the airport, our troops fought them, and they retreated to the border … 20-25 km.”
Earlier Monday, in a video posted to Telegram, Mykolaiv regional administrator Vitaly Kim also said the Russians were retreating after they lost two tanks in a “tank fight” at the airport.
Heavy fighting broke out in Mykolaiv, and a video authenticated by CNN shows explosions from military strikes and large plumes of smoke around the Ukrainian city, about 250 miles south of Kyiv.
Sienkiewicz reported that the city faced “rocket fire… about 60 rockets fell on our city, 61 buildings were… destroyed, about 40 rockets fell unexploded. So in the morning we also got an attack of heavy weapons such as tanks and heavy fighting vehicles all over the city.”
The mayor went on to say that Russian forces relied heavily on cluster bombs, which are prohibited by the Geneva Convention. “90% of the rockets sent to our city, fired at our city, were cluster bombs,” he said.
“They are illegal, but we have a lot of photos and evidence of them using illegal weapons now in the 21st century.”
Despite the attacks, Sienkiewicz said that the Ukrainian forces “are motivated, they want to defend our Motherland, our city, and they are really motivated and want to fight to the death.” He said there were “a good number of people and heavy equipment” in the city.
“We are ready to defend our city, and we also have a corridor to get support, food, etc. from the Odessa region. This is the only way left for us, and we receive help from our various partners, sister cities and cities in Western Ukraine. Now we need helmets and vests for our territorial defense forces, and we are collecting food for long-term storage,” the mayor said.
He told Amanpour that the Russian soldiers were lying when they were taken over by Ukrainian troops. “Every time we catch them alive, they say they didn’t know where they were going, they were at the training camp, they crossed the border, and then in Nikolaev they found out that they were far from Russia. But this is a lie. Because from Nikolaev to the Crimea about 500 km.
“They must know where they are, they are gathering near Kherson, they have dispersed throughout our city and are trying to attack our city,” he said.