"[L]ate last month, Ihor Kolykhaiev, the mayor of the city of Kherson since 2020, said the Russian propaganda, coupled with the feeling of being abandoned..."

"... by the government in Kyiv, was slowly succeeding in changing the perceptions of some residents who have stayed behind — mainly pensioners and people with low incomes. 'I think that something is changing in relationships, probably in people’s habits,' he said, estimating that 5 to 10 percent of his constituents had changed their mind because of the propaganda. 'This is an irreversible process that will happen in the future,' he added. 'And that’s what I’m really worried about. Then it will be almost impossible to restore it.'... Days later, his assistant announced he had been abducted by pro-Russian occupying forces.... Mr. Putin has referred to Kherson and other parts of Ukraine’s southeast as Novorossiya, or New Russia — the region’s name after it was conquered by Catherine the Great in the 18th century and became part of the Russian Empire. In recent years, nostalgia in the region for the Soviet past and skepticism of the pro-Western government in Kyiv still lingered among older generations, even as the region was forging a new Ukrainian identity."

From "How the Kremlin Is Forcing Ukrainians to Adopt Russian Life/In Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, local leaders are forcing civilians to accept Russian rule. Next come sham elections that would formalize Vladimir V. Putin’s claim that they are Russian territories" (NYT).