- Moscow-installed officials in the captured city of Kherson have delayed a sham vote to join Russia.
- Pro-Kremlin official Kirill Stremousov said the vote would be put on "pause" due to security issues.
Russian-installed officials in Kherson signaled on Monday that they would push back a referendum for the occupied Ukrainian region to join Russia, amid a counter-offensive by Kyiv's forces.
The city of Kherson, strategically located near the Black Sea, is the only Ukrainian regional capital to have been fully captured by Russia in its invasion. Residents there have begun receiving Russian passports as part of Moscow's push to assimilate Kherson into Russia's legal, political, and economic sphere.
Authorities appointed there by Moscow have for months floated the idea of a sham referendum that would allow the region to officially join Russia alongside the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
However, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-backed administration in Kherson, said on Monday that plans for the referendum would be put on "pause" due to "current developments" with security, the TASS news agency reported.
He later altered his comment to say there would be no "pause" because a date for the referendum had never been set, according to Agence France-Presse.
"The referendum in the Kherson region will be held in any weather, no matter what," Stremousov said in a video posted on his Telegram channel on Monday evening.
The announcement comes as Ukraine launched an offensive last week to retake Kherson, where a resistance movement has already been waging guerilla warfare against Russia's occupying forces.
Kyiv has declined to share details around its push toward the south, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Ukraine had retaken three settlements so far.
Insider was unable to verify Zelenskyy's report, though the UK Ministry of Defence has published a map highlighting the likely areas where Ukraine has gained ground in the south.
Shortly after Ukraine began its counterattack, Stremousov posted a video of himself in the Russian city of Voronezh, claiming he was on a business trip. He denied fleeing Kherson because of Ukraine's assault and said he would return to the city.
Stremousov later appeared in another video claiming that he had arrived in Kherson. Insider could not independently verify this claim.