Russia may annex a new Ukrainian city, US official warns

A U.S. official is raising concerns that Russian forces could annex the Ukrainian city of Kherson, which is in the southern part of the country near the Crimean Peninsula.
Ambassador Michael Carpenter, who serves as the U.S. diplomat to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, warned the organization’s permanent council on Thursday, “In recent days, these illegitimate proxies have increasingly indicated an intention to ‘petition’ Russia to annex Kherson.”
This is not the first time Carpenter has warned about the possibility of Russia attempting to hold “sham” referendums in Ukrainian cities that Russian forces have seized. At the beginning of May, he told reporters his team had seen “highly credible” evidence to indicate “that the Kremlin may try to hold a sham referendum to try to add a veneer of democratic electoral legitimacy.”
UKRAINE COULD ‘DEFINITELY WIN’ DEPENDING ON …