In anticipation of the Ukrainian army’s imminent offensive, the occupiers of Kherson Oblast and their local collaborators announced an “evacuation.”
As Dumska writes, on the evening of Oct. 18 and the morning of Oct. 19, the traitors Volodymyr Saldo, the so-called “temporary acting governor of Kherson Oblast,” and Kyrylo Stremousov, the so-called “deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson Oblast,” declared the need for “urgent evacuation” from Kherson and the right-bank part of Kherson Oblast. Unfoundedly asserting that Ukrainian troops will shell Kherson and other settlements, they recommend citizens to “voluntarily leave” to the left bank, and then to Russia.
“It’s quite a primitive tactic, considering that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not fire at Ukrainian cities – only Russian terrorists do that,” commented Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Instead, the head of Mykolayiv OVA Vitaly Kim is sure that it is the occupiers who are preparing to shell Kherson and then blame the Ukrainian army for the attacks.
The goal of the “evacuation” may also be the attempt of the occupiers to leave Kherson under the cover of the civilian population.
It is interesting that the “evacuation” concerns not only the occupied part of Kherson Oblast but also all “local governments”, which, apparently on the basis of Putin’s declaration of martial law there, the Kremlin dwarf considers his own. In fact, it may not be about “evacuation” but about deportation, since under martial law no one will ask people whether they want to “evacuate” or not. (In Russia, no one is interested in people’s opinions even in peacetime).
Adding fuel to the fire is the butcher of Aleppo, the current commander of the Russian “operation” in Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin. Appearing unexpectedly on Russian propaganda television on October 18, the general called the situation in the Kherson Oblast “difficult” and did not rule out “making difficult decisions.” Now everyone is puzzling over what he meant by “difficult decisions.” Surrender of Kherson? Use nuclear weapons? Blowing up the Kakhovka HPP dam and flooding part of the Kherson Oblast?
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) does not rule out the latter. “The Russian authorities are probably creating informational conditions to justify planned Russian retreats and significant losses of territory in the Kherson Oblast. […] Russian forces are also setting information conditions to conduct a false-flag attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). The Russian military may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances across the river. ,” ISW analysts write.
However, MP Serhii Khlan considers it unlikely that the Russians will blow up the Kakhovka HPP. “I think that the occupiers will not go for it […] If the dam is blown up, the left-bank part of Kherson Oblast will be flooded, where the occupiers have dug in and are planning their fortifications after withdrawing from the right bank,” he told Channel 24.
Collage: Channel 24
