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Silke Bigalke, Moscow
Andrei Turchak was one of the first to say it: “Russia is here forever,” said the representative of the Kremlin party and Putin supporter in Kherson in May. The Ukrainian city was occupied by Russian troops early in the war – and for the first time a high-ranking regime official seemed to confirm that Moscow wanted to occupy Ukrainian territories permanently. “There is no going back to the past,” emphasized Turchak in Kherson.