Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson region should be removed from the conflict zone, the first acknowledgment of the deteriorating situation in a region the Kremlin chief claims he has annexed.
“Now, of course, those living in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer,” Putin told pro-Kremlin activists while celebrating Russia’s Day of National Unity.
Putin’s words, which came spontaneously after an activist told the Russian president in Red Square to work to deliver Russian flags to Kherson, were broadcast on state television and reported by the state news agency RIA.
Russian-based officials in the Kherson region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Putin declared to be part of Russia at a Kremlin ceremony in September, have urged civilians to leave the western region, which Ukrainian forces have retaken in recent weeks.
On Thursday, the Russian-appointed deputy governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, released several video calls for civilians to leave the part of the province on the west bank of the Dnipro River. He said that Russian forces would soon hand over the west bank of Dnipro to Ukraine.
The Kherson region, most of which Russia controls since launching its military action against Ukraine on February 24, is considered strategically crucial as it controls both land access and most of the water supply to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
It remains the only regional capital that Russia has conquered since February.
Ukraine declared a counteroffensive at Kherson in August and largely repulsed Russian forces from the north of the region in September.
The commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, has already referred to the difficult situation in Kherson.
source: Noticias
