Moscow-backed officials try to solidify Ukraine rule

KYIV, Ukraine, June 13 (AP/BBC/AFP): Kremlin-installed officials in occupied southern Ukraine celebrated Russia Day on Sunday and began issuing Russian passports to residents in one city who requested them, as Moscow sought to solidify its rule over captured parts of the country.

At one of the central squares in the city of Kherson, Russian bands played a concert to celebrate Russia Day, the holiday that marks Russia's emergence as a sovereign state after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.

In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed officials raised a Russian flag in Melitopol's city center.

Ukrainian media reported that few, if any, local residents attended the Russia Day festivities in the two cities.

Russia Day was also celebrated in other occupied parts of Ukraine, including the ravaged southern port of Mariupol, where a new city sign painted in the colors of the Russian flag was unveiled on the outskirts and Russian flags were flown on a highway leading into the city.

Also, the Russia-aligned administration in Melitopol started handing out Russian passports to those who applied for Russian citizenship. RIA Novosti posted video of a Moscow-backed official congratulating new Russian citizens and telling them: "Russia will not go anywhere. We are here for good."

Severodonetsk industrial

plant 'under heavy fire'

Hundreds of civilians in Severodonetsk are sheltering in the city's Azot chemical plant - which is coming under heavy fire from Russian forces, the regional governor says.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine that also includes Severodonetsk, says Russian forces control about 70% of the city and fighting there is fierce.

"About 500 civilians remain on the grounds of the Azot plant in Severodonetsk, 40 of them are children. Sometimes the military manages to evacuate someone," he says.

War could last two yrs,

Ex-Russian PM says

He was Vladimir Putin's first prime minister but Mikhail Kasyanov never in his worst nightmares imagined that his former boss would unleash a full-scale war on Ukraine.

Speaking to AFP in a video interview, Kasyanov, Russia's prime minister from 2000 to 2004, said he expected the war could last up to two years but he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.