In the neighboring Kherson region, a self-proclaimed head of the administration set up by the occupation forces said they had begun accepting Russian passport applications.
“Many of our residents have been waiting for this opportunity. We have already sent questions and requests, “said Vladimir Saldo.
Parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya would be the only notable gains Putin can present to the Russian public when the war, conceived as a lightning-fast operation, entered its fourth month.
Residents of southern Ukraine greeted Russian soldiers with hostility in an overwhelming manner. In several villages, people were seen trying to move tanks away from their streets and angrily confronting troops.
In Kherson, thousands of people gathered with Ukrainian flags for weeks before the Russian army began violently dispersing protests and kidnapping political activists.
Both regions are important to Russia as a “land bridge” that connects the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to the Black Sea in the south, with parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by the separatists.
In Mariupol, nearly wiped out by airstrikes before being captured by Russian forces earlier this month, separatist authorities began issuing Russian passports on Wednesday, said Petro Andryushchenko, the mayor’s adviser on exile. He added: “The annexation has begun.”