The pro-Russian authorities in Kherson end the evacuation of 80,000 civilians because of the Ukrainian advance
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appeared in a television video this Friday informing President Vladimir Putin that the task of recruiting 300,000 reservists to bolster the Russian war apparatus in Ukraine has already been completed. “The task you set to recruit 300,000 civilians has been completed. No additional actions are planned. The military commissioners, under the special military operation, will continue to recruit troops, but will only accept volunteers or candidates who have completed military service under contract,” Shoigu told Putin.
The minister clarified that “218,000 mobilized are undergoing training in training camps, 82,000 have been sent to the special operations area, of which more than 41,000 are already operating within the military units deployed in Ukraine.” Putin ordered the “partial mobilization” of reservists on September 21 with the aim of recruiting 300,000 troops, according to Shoigu.
Later, on October 14, the Russian president stated that “all mobilization activities will be completed within the next two weeks” and assured that it would not be extended for the time being. Successful Ukrainian counter-offensives in Kharkov, Kherson and part of Donetsk have put the Russian army in trouble. Hence the urgent need to mobilize to increase the number of troops. The move caused a massive flight of Russians abroad to avoid being sent to the front.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the pro-Russian government of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremoúsov, and the governor of annexed Crimea, Sergei Axiónov, announced that the evacuation of civilians from the city of Kherson, the main administrative center of the province, has been completed. past. Promoted by Moscow, the exodus of the population began on October 18, and according to Vladimir Saldo, the puppet who has put the Kremlin in charge of this area, annexed on September 30 along with Donetsk, Lugansk and neighboring Zaporizhia, from all over Kherson , located on the right bank of the Dnieper River, has left some 80,000 people behind in recent days.
Most of them simply crossed the river to areas further south and closer to Crimea, and others, it seems, moved to the peninsula itself or to points further inland from Russia. “I am pleased that everyone was able to quickly and safely leave the area under fire by Ukraine’s armed forces,” Axyonov wrote on his Telegram channel.
The Crimean leader, along with Sergei Kiriyenko, the Kremlin’s first deputy head of government, has been in charge of overseeing the evacuation. Both have also just been to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on the eve of another visit by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This time with the task of verifying whether Ukraine really does manufacture a “dirty bomb”, a device composed of highly radioactive nuclear waste and a conventional explosive.
However, according to the Russian publication Meduza, the city of Kherson is far from being completely abandoned by civilians. This is stated by Seguéi Jlan, advisor to the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, who stated in statements to Meduza that “the occupation authorities have moved their headquarters to Guenichesk”, a town 165 kilometers south of the city of Kherson. , almost on the border with Crimea.
But according to Jlan, “the majority of Kherson’s residents are still in the city awaiting the arrival of Ukrainian troops,” something the Russian military and local pro-Russian militias are expecting any minute. Hence preparations to resist Kiev’s counter-offensive in what is expected to be a major urban battle.
The deputy head of the administration of the region, Ekaterina Gubareva, insists that fortifications are being built in Kherson and the surrounding area in light of the foreseeable advance of Ukrainian troops. In his words, “the first floors of buildings are fortified and fortifications are built with sandbags to defend themselves and repel attacks in the city.” In addition, Monday began the creation of “territorial defense militias” in the style of those who have been active in Donetsk and Lugansk for more than eight years.
Source: La Verdad
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