KYIV, Ukraine >> Russian troops are forcibly relocating people from occupied areas near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, suggesting the move could indicate that Moscow’s forces might be preparing to withdraw further from that area before an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russian forces retreated from Kherson in November and decamped to just across the Dnieper River, from where they have continued to launch frequent attacks on the city. In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has warned that Russian occupation authorities have been preparing to evacuate civilians from the territory it still controls in the broader Kherson region before any potential counteroffensive.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian head of Kherson’s regional council, Oleksandr Samoylenko, said the evacuations had begun.
“I have information that the evacuation starts today with an excuse of protecting civilians from the consequences of heavy fighting in the area,” Samoylenko said. He said the troops were “trying to steal as much as they can” as they withdrew.
The assertions could not be independently verified, and there was no comment from Russian authorities. However, at other points in the war, evacuations from Russian occupied areas have precipitated an eventual pullback of Russian forces in the face of Ukrainian advances. And in Russia’s view, Kherson is one of several Ukrainian regions that are now legally part of Russia.
Seizing back chunks of Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine is widely believed to be one potential aim of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, and Samoylenko’s remarks came as military analysts reported that small teams of Ukrainian forces had recently seized marshy islands on a stretch of the Dnieper River near the city of Kherson, which is in Ukrainian hands.
Citing Russian military bloggers, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, said in a report on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had been attacking Russian troops dug into the riverbanks a mile or so outside Kherson. And residents of the city reached by phone on Sunday said the Ukrainian military had been increasingly active along the river.
Ukrainian officials were tight-lipped about their troops’ movements on Sunday. Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian military southern command, did not confirm or deny the reports that Ukrainian forces were advancing across the Dnieper River. She said the Russian forces were “stealing everything they could get their hands on: domestic appliances, factory equipment, even ATM machines,” adding, “Whenever the Russians start stealing everything, it means they are not going to return.”