Pro-Russian authorities in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on Saturday ordered all residents to leave the city “immediately” before Ukrainian troops advance.
In a Telegram message, pro-Kremlin officials called on civilians in what was one of the main urban areas occupied by the invaders at the start of the war to use boats to cross the Dnieper River to areas controlled by Russia.
Russian troops cited a tense situation and an alleged threat of bombings and “terror attacks” by Kiev.
Ukrainian forces attacked Russian military supply routes in Kherson on Friday in a bid to launch a large-scale attack on Russian positions in the region.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said so far “88 sites have been recaptured” from Russian forces in the Kherson region, 13 more than the previous balance of the offensive in the region by Kiev.
Russian authorities have claimed that four people, including two journalists, were killed in a nighttime bombing of a bridge in Kherson.
The Ukrainian military denied targeting civilians: “We are not hitting essential infrastructure, we are not hitting peaceful settlements and local people,” said a spokeswoman, Natalia Goumenyuk.
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Operational Command in the south of the country assured that the Antonivskyi Bridge was not hit until after 10 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 Ukraine’s counter-offensive in this recently annexed Moscow region.
On October 13, Moscow-appointed interim governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, requested the civilian population of the part of that area that lies on the right bank of the Dnieper to move to the other bank, in the face of the advancing Ukrainian troops.
This Wednesday, as the organized withdrawal began, Saldo said more than 7,000 civilians were transported to the left bank of the Dnieper River by “ferries” on the first day.
In total, the pro-Russian authorities want to evacuate between 50,000 and 60,000 residents within six days.
Moreover, they have already installed the power structures of the civil and military administration outside the regional capital, including on the other side of the river.
Ukrainian ‘counter-attacks’ in Russian border areas are becoming more common and this week authorities in Kursk and Belgorod reported the destruction of an electrical substation and a train station.
Source: DN
