The Russian occupation authorities of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on Thursday asked Moscow to organize the evacuation of civilians from this territory annexed by Russia at the end of September and targeted by a counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army.
“
We have suggested that all residents of the Kherson region who want to protect themselves from Ukrainian missile strikes can go to other
Russian regions,” the head of the regional occupation administration, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram. .
"
Take your children and go
," he urged in a speech broadcast on social networks, sitting behind a desk, Russian flag in his back.
Saldo called on Russia to provide
the "help
" necessary "
to organize such work
", saying for his part that he had offered "
in the first place
" to the inhabitants of the localities on the right bank of the Dnipro river, closer to the line of forehead, to evacuate.
Read alsoAnnexation of Ukrainian territories: “Russian theater”
These residents will be taken to the Russian regions closest to that of Kherson, he said, citing the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow, and the regions of Rostov, Krasnodar and Stavropol, in the south of the Russia.
This announcement comes the day after kyiv claimed to have taken five localities in the Kherson region.
For several weeks, the Ukrainian army has been leading a counter-offensive in this territory of southern Ukraine, annexed by Moscow, but where troops from kyiv said last week that they had taken over more than 400 km2 in less than seven days.
"
Every day, towns in the Kherson region are subjected to missile strikes
," Saldo said on Thursday.
“
These strikes cause serious damage, first and foremost, to the inhabitants
,” he lamented.