*

Russia is not in full control of Kherson anymore, the Pentagon says.

Man. The hits just keep on comin' today. A Good Friday. 

WASHINGTON — Russian forces no longer have full control of Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city that President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces managed to capture as part of his invasion, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday.

*A subsequent CNN report convincingly refutes that assertion. Noodles spoke to four people in Kherson, all of whom said Russia is still in control.

Ukrainian forces are now fighting fiercely in Kherson and pushing back Russian gains there, again making the strategically important port city “contested territory,” the official told reporters during a briefing.

*Similarly, I am convinced by CNN's report that Kherson is not contested territory. The New York Times does its reporting on Ukraine from precincts like Washington, London. I guess they're too scared to go to actual cities in Ukraine like Kherson.

Any Ukrainian success in taking back Kherson would be a huge blow to Putin’s [*If they manage to, which they have not] war effort, making it harder for Russia to follow through on any plans to seize control of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and the southern port of Odessa, defense officials said. Losing Kherson would also endanger Russian troops who have been fighting in nearby Mykolayiv, the Pentagon official said.
...

 ..[Also] Russian soldiers have adopted “defensive positions” on the ground near Kyiv, the capital. They have also abandoned efforts to capture it from the ground, the official said.

“They don’t show any sign of being able to move on Kyiv from the ground,” the official said. He added that U.S. officials believed that Russia was “prioritizing” the fight in eastern Ukraine, [noble Dumbass Ho-ho-ho] where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014.