BREAKING: First Major Ukraine City Falls to the Russian Invaders. “The surrender of Kherson has to be seen as expected. It will be disheartening to some Ukrainians. Kherson has a population of about 300,000, and it is 70 percent Ukrainian. If an insurgency spawns there, the Russians will not be able to hold the city. Its loss, however, is more critical to what happens at the cease-fire negotiations than it is to what is happening outside Kiev.”