Pro-Russian authorities based in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, on Saturday ordered all residents to leave the city “immediately” in the face of advancing Ukrainian forces.
In a Telegram message, pro-Kremlin officials called on civilians in what is one of the main urban areas occupied by the invaders at the start of the war to use boats to cross the Dnieper River into Kremlin-held territories. Russia.
Russian forces cited a tense situation and an alleged threat of bombing and “terrorist attacks” from kyiv.
Ukrainian forces attacked Russian military resupply routes in Kherson on Friday with a view to a full-scale attack on Russian positions in the region.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said that so far “88 places have been retaken” from Russian forces in the Kherson region, 13 more than the previous balance of the offensive in the region by kyiv.
Russian authorities said that four people, including two journalists, were killed during a nighttime shelling of a bridge in Kherson.
The Ukrainian army denied targeting civilians: “We are not targeting essential infrastructure, we are not targeting peaceful settlements and the local population,” said a spokeswoman, Natalia Goumenyuk.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian operational command in the south of the country assured that the Antonivskyi bridge was attacked just after 10:00 p.m. local time, a curfew for the civilian population.
Pro-Russian forces urged civilians to move to the left bank of the Dnieper River in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in this region recently annexed by Moscow.
On October 13, the acting governor of the Kherson region appointed by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, asked the civilian population of the part of that territory that is on the right bank of the Dnieper to go to the other bank, before the Ukrainian advance. troops.
This Wednesday, when the organized withdrawal began, Saldo said that on the first day more than 7,000 citizens were transported on ‘ferries’ to the left bank of the Dnieper River.
In total, the pro-Russian authorities intend to evacuate between 50,000 and 60,000 inhabitants within six days.
In addition, they have already installed the power structures of the civil and military administration outside the regional capital, also on the other side of the river.
Ukrainian ‘counter-attacks’ in Russian border areas are becoming more frequent, and this week the authorities in Kursk and Belgorod reported the destruction of an electrical substation and a train station.
Source: TSF
