Pro-Moscow authorities in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex the region after Russia claimed Ukrainian artillery strikes on Belgorod had killed civilians.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Kherson administration installed by Moscow after the city’s capture, said on Wednesday that there would soon be an official “request to make Kherson region a full subject of the Russian Federation.”

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The Kremlin, however, played down suggestions of an impending annexation, saying that it would leave the residents of Kherson to “determine their own fate.”

The public exchange between the city administration and Moscow comes at a time when Ukraine has vowed to liberate Kherson, which was the first Ukrainian city to fall after the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.

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It also comes amid Russian accusations of indiscriminate shelling by Ukraine: on Wednesday, Moscow accused Kyiv of cross-border shelling in the region of Belgorod, which resulted in the death of at least one civilian in the village of Solokhi, and wounded at least three others.

“The population of the village of Solokhi will be taken to a safe place under the leadership of the head of the district, Vladimir Pertsev, and the head of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergey Potapov,” said Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who also announced the casualty count.

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Kyiv, however, has neither confirmed nor denied the strike on the border region of Belgorod to Ukraine’s east, which has experienced several explosions in recent weeks amid intensifying fighting in the contested Donbas region.