Kherson partially emptied after Russian general details “tense” situation

A portion of Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine has been evacuated by Russian officials following a successful Ukrainian advancement in four towns.

Reuters reported Tuesday on an “organized, gradual displacement” from Kupiansk and Lyman in eastern Ukraine and from Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih in the northern part of the Kherson province.

Sergei Surovikin, an air force general who earlier this month was promoted to command Russia’s invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel that the situation was “tense.” He was appointed by the Kremlin two days before Kyiv and other cities were recently shelled.

“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” he said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Russian forces reportedly driven back between 13 and 20 miles in recent weeks are again at risk of being pinned against the western bank of the Dnipro River.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of Kherson, announced the evacuation shortly after Surovikin’s comments. Reuters reported that Saldo, without evidence, accused Ukrainian forces of planning to destroy a major dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.

“The Ukrainian side is building up forces for a large-scale offensive,” Saldo said. “There is an immediate danger of flooding…due to the planned destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the release of water from a cascade of power plants further up the Dnipro.”

Nataliya Humenyuk, head of the joint press center of Ukrainian Defense Forces of the South, said one month ago that Russian forces in Kherson were “sandwiched” between Ukrainian troops and the Dnipro River.

Russian soldiers were offered a way out “under the auspices of international humanitarian law” or given the chance to return home.

Earlier this month, the U.K. Ministry of Defense reported that Russian soldiers have “typically broken contact and withdrawn” in the region. Nova Kakhovka—located at the start of the North Crimean Canal that takes fresh water to the annexed peninsula—was described “as one of their most pressing concerns.”

“Our further plans and actions regarding the city of Kherson itself will depend on the emerging military-tactical situation,” Surovikin said Tuesday. “I repeat, it is already very difficult today. We will act consciously, in a timely manner, without ruling out difficult decisions.”

Sergej Sumlenny, an Eastern European expert based in Berlin, tweeted an interview snippet Tuesday in which Surovikin said “Ukrainians and Russians are one nation” and “all what Russia does is trying to force the Ukrainians to be friends with Russia.”

“It is a pure rapist’s logic, nothing more,” Sumlenny said about the words from the commander nicknamed “Armageddon.”

Newsweek reached out to the defense ministries of Ukraine and Russia for comment.