The pro-Russian governor of the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson has called on civilians to evacuate.
In a video statement, Vladimir Saldo said people in four towns near the Dnipro River, given the risk that Ukrainian shelling could damage a nearby dam.
Meanwhile, the youngest Russian commander said he could not rule out “difficult decisions” regarding the defense of the city.
That something is going on in southern Ukraine was confirmed earlier, when military expert Professor Michael Clarke – former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) – said the news blackout by the authorities meant “something big is going on”. happens”.
He said that “they’ve always done that before when there’s a big offensive push. I think in the next 48-72 hours they can tell us what’s going on. Now for sure, something big is happening, it may fail, it may not work, but in the past it has worked.”
While it is still too early to be sure, signs are increasingly pointing to a Russian withdrawal from the city.
This would be an important victory for Ukraine – Russia captured the city of Kherson largely unopposed in the first days of the invasion, and it remains the only major Ukrainian city that Moscow’s forces have captured intact.
Defeat would now be the latest in an increasingly humiliating series of defeats for Russian President Vladimir Putin.