The Russian-installed leaders in Ukraine's Kherson region on Wednesday began massively ramping up the relocation of up to 60000 people amid warnings over ...
Seventh months later, the Kremlin considers the Kherson region to be part of Russia, after claiming to annex it last month. (In addition to Crimea, Russian-backed forces have controlled Donetsk and Luhansk cities since 2014.) It’s the second-biggest population center that Russia has captured after Mariupol. “We are strongly advising to leave the right bank area.” Ukraine’s government had shut that canal down in 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the peninsula. Russia’s ability to resupply its troops in Kherson has been severely hampered by frequent Ukrainian missile and artillery strikes on Russian-controlled bridges crossing the Dnipro. In September, the UN Security Council also said Russia’s forcible deportation of 2.5 million people from Ukraine – including 38,000 children – constitutes human rights violations. Residents in the city of Kherson began to receive text messages on Wednesday morning from the pro-Russian administration. Those who have different political views or are affiliated with the Ukrainian government or media disappear into a gray area. There will be buses from 7:00, from Rechport [River port] to the Left Bank.” It is difficult to say what decision they will make.” The other regions are Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. There will be shelling of residential areas by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
But the claims of evacuation and an impending attack were part of a Russian disinformation campaign to lay the groundwork for an armed provocation that Moscow ...
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Tens of thousands of civilians and Russian-appointed officials are being moved out of Ukraine's southern Kherson region ahead of a Ukrainian offensive, ...
Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russian forces when they invaded Ukraine in February. "It is a fairly primitive tactic, taking into account that the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] do not shell cities," Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram. Ukrainian officials said last week that 400 sq km (155 sq miles) of territory had been regained in less than a week. "In the past two days, more than 5,000 people have left Kherson," he was quoted as saying. In early September, the UN said there were already credible accusations of forced deportation of Ukrainian children from other Russian-occupied areas. "There are plenty of them here; they are dressed as civilians.
Ukraine says the evacuation is scaremongering and propaganda but a news blackout in the south of the country has increased speculation that a major ...
[Ukraine](https://news.sky.com/topic/ukraine-6556) has called the evacuation a propaganda stunt and scaremongering. The head of the Ukrainian president's office, Andriy Yermak, posted on Telegram: "The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation." Many in Kherson city, which used to have a population of about 280,000, have already fled to other areas of Ukraine or abroad. Ukraine says the evacuation is scaremongering and propaganda but a news blackout in the south of the country has increased speculation that a major counterattack is imminent. The Moscow-backed head of the southern Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said about 50,000-60,000 people would be evacuated over the next six days and claimed Ukraine was preparing "a large-scale offensive". Kherson residents have been boarding boats in an apparent evacuation as Russia claimed Ukraine is planning a major attack and President Putin declared martial law in four occupied regions.
Losing control of the city to Ukraine would be a major setback for Russian forces and another blow to the Kremlin's prestige.
Analysts have said that Gen Surovikin will be determined to restore the reputation of the Russian army as a fighting force and throw everything at defending Kherson city from Ukrainian advances. Losing control of Kherson would be a major setback for Russian forces and another blow to the Kremlin’s prestige. As part of the information war, he said that Ukrainian forces planned to destroy an upstream dam to flood the city. His only requirement is to win the war for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. Anna, 35, said that people were cooperating with the Russian forces because they were scared and hungry after eight months of occupation. “I know soldiers and the fighting is getting closer because I hear it every day,” Irina, who declined to give her surname, told The Telegraph by social media.
Pro-Kremlin officials were pulling out of the key southern Ukraine city of Kherson on Wednesday, as Kyiv's forces advanced on territory in Russian hands ...
The enemy is not abandoning its attempts to attack Russian troop positions," he told Rossiya 24. Russian forces also continue to occupy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a different section of the Dnipro River. Ukraine has re-captured large swathes of occupied territory in the east of the country in recent weeks. The city is located on the western bank of the Dnipro, the same side where Ukrainian troops have been moving forward in a counter-offensive that began in August. "The entire administration is already moving today," to the left bank of the Dnipro River, the region's Moscow-installed head Vladimir Saldo, said on Russian state television. Pro-Kremlin officials were pulling out of the key southern Ukraine city of Kherson on Wednesday, as Kyiv's forces advanced on territory in Russian hands since the war's earliest days.
Occupation authorities in the annexed Kherson region of Ukraine have announced the start of a new Ukrainian offensive in that direction.
[noted](https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/pfbid02doYaNgwctGaqayJRTV3MXum1wK9vpp1CUtbFLcHyQzYmwhLi9X5DzszzNLybRbkjl) only that Russia was bringing additional forces to certain points in the region. [sent](https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/10/19/kherson-occupation-authorities-send-text-message-calling-for-residents-to-leave-city) locals a text message, warning them that the Ukrainian army would be “shelling residential areas.” The message also mentioned the possibility of organized evacuation to the left bank. While the Ukrainian General Staff is silent about the offensive, Russia’s General Surovikin [says](https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/10/19/we-may-have-to-make-some-difficult-decisions-in-kherson) that he expects “to make some difficult decisions” in Kherson. The acting “governor” of Kherson, Volodymyr Saldo, [says](https://t.me/VGA_Kherson/4153) that “no one is about to surrender” Kherson. A day earlier, Volodymyr Saldo had announced that residents of four municipalities (though not Kherson) — some 50–60 thousand people — could be “relocated in an organized fashion” to the left bank and to Russia. “Up to two infantry battalions of the 128 Motor Assault Brigade and a 17 Brigade tank battalion” have “launched an offensive in the Nova Kamianka–Beryslav direction,”