This Friday, the Russian president acknowledged for the first time that civilians were being withdrawn from Kherson in southern Ukraine, one of the regions hardest hit by the advance of Ukrainian troops into Russian-occupied territories. However, Putin did not mention the withdrawal of troops, which a senior Russian official acknowledged the day before.
“It is clear that those who live in Kherson must be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer,” Putin told pro-government activists in a speech on National Unity Day.
The evacuation of civilians has been going on for several days and has been condemned by Kyiv as a measure of forced deportation of Ukrainian citizens, which is a war crime.
The withdrawal of civilians will be accompanied by the withdrawal of soldiers, many of whom allegedly fled before the Ukrainian offensive. Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy administrator of Kherson, assured on Thursday that a military withdrawal was “highly likely” but later corrected this and said he hoped there would be no withdrawal, calling the decision “very difficult.”
The same ambiguity was repeated when Kirill announced a curfew in the city of Kherson, the regional capital, and then mistook what was said for what was not said. There is no doubt that the call to the civilian population to leave the city and adjacent territories in connection with the advance of Ukrainian military columns.
The mechanized company of the Ukrainian infantry was located to the west of the city. The company’s second-in-command, Vitaly, 48, said he expected the Russians to withdraw, but not without stubborn resistance in defending the city, the only regional capital the Russians had captured since the February 24 invasion.
However, in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces are using captured weapons to defend the city from the Russians. Russian weapons now used by Ukrainians include a T-80 tank and a 2S23 Nona SVK captured in March and repaired.
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