Media reports say Russian General Sergey Surovikin, who has been in charge of recent operations in Ukraine, has said the army is preparing to evacuate civilians from the city of Kherson, which is part of the four regions in Ukraine that Moscow recently annexed.
Kherson was the first city to fall to Russian forces after the Kremlin launched the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, but Ukrainian troops have been pushing increasingly closer to the city in recent weeks as part of a successful counter-offensive.
"The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population" of Kherson, Surovikin told state television Rossiya 24, describing the situation as "very difficult" both for civilians and Russian soldiers.
"The enemy is not abandoning its attempts to attack Russian troop positions," he added.
Meanwhile, TASS today cited the acting governor of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo as saying on Tuesday that the voluntary relocation will be carried out in an organized manner and free of charge.
According to him, civilians living on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region will be evacuated to the left bank due to the risk of flooding in the event that Ukrainian forces damage the up-river Kakhovskaya hydro power plant.
"There is an immediate danger of flooding of the territories due to the planned destruction of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant and the discharge of water from the cascade of power plants upstream of the Dnieper. In this situation, I made a difficult but correct decision to declare an organized relocation of the civilian population of the Berislavsky, Belozyorsky, Snigiryovsky and Aleksandrovsky municipalities to the left bank of the Dnieper," he said on Telegram.
The official also said that Ukraine "is massing huge forces in the Nikolayev and Krivoi Rog areas." He said another reason why the relocation decision was made is "the creation of large-scale defensive fortifications so that any attack is repulsed."
According to TASS, commander of the Integrated Group of Forces in Ukraine Army-General Sergey Surovikin said on Tuesday that Russia has information that Kiev is preparing a massive missile strike on the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant.
