The Kremlin troops are apparently facing a decisive battle in southern Ukraine: the Russian supreme governor in Cherson is calling on civilians to flee to Russia as quickly as possible and is asking Moscow for help. His deputy replies: A troop withdrawal is not planned.
The Russian-installed administration in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson has asked Moscow to evacuate civilians from the area. “We have suggested that all residents of the Kherson region who want to escape from Ukrainian attacks can go to other Russian regions,” occupation chief Vladimir Saldo told Telegram in the afternoon. “Take your children with you and go,” he called on the residents.
At the same time, Saldo asked the leadership in Moscow to help organize the evacuations. The Cherson region in southern Ukraine, which was annexed by Russia at the end of September, has been the target of a counter-offensive by the Ukrainian army for several weeks, which has been able to advance ever further. Saldo had already announced on Saturday that the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol were ready to take in children and adults.
Only moments after Saldo’s latest telegram appeal, however, his deputy Kirill Stremouzov declared that the Kherson region would not be evacuated. “No one plans to withdraw Russian troops from the Kherson region.” Stremoussov admitted on Russian state television last weekend that his administration was preparing for “a difficult time.” At the same time, with a view to the planned evacuations, he spoke of “recreation invitations” from Russian regions to children, parents and the elderly.
The British secret service had previously suspected that the Russian occupation authorities were soon expecting fighting in the city of Cherson. “In the past few days, the Russian occupation authorities have probably ordered preparations to evacuate some civilians from Kherson,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a daily statement on Twitter. It is therefore likely that they expected fighting within the city to come.
After retreating about 20 kilometers north of the Cherson sector at the beginning of October, the Russians are now trying to consolidate a new line of front west of the town of Mylowe. This line continued to be heavily contested, particularly at its western end, where the Ukrainian advance meant that the Russians no longer benefited from protecting the Inhulez River. Most of the Russian units are also undermanned, according to the British experts.
