Russia is using soft power tactics to sway the sympathies of Ukrainian civilians. Therefore, the Kherson region has already announced its withdrawal from Ukraine and the desire to join Russia.
Not "Kherson region", but a puppet government installed by Russians.
The dog barks, the caravan moves on. Residents of the Kherson region will have a chance to express their will in a referendum. In the meantime, Ukraine has stopped paying pensions and social benefits to residents of the Kherson region, and Russia is doing this for Ukraine. And Ukraine shoots at residential areas, this is the only thing it knows how to do well.
Russia acts in Ukraine not as an occupier, but as a liberator. This is much more difficult and longer than bombing everything with air bombs and cleaning up the ruins. But in the long run, it's a winning strategy.
Except out here in the real world they bombed and shelled Mariupol for two months.
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Mariupol was not bombed, Azovstal was bombed.