A top Ukrainian government official has issued an urgent appeal for hundreds of thousands of people living in Russian-occupied regions of southern Ukraine to evacuate in the face of a potential Ukrainian counterattack, in an effort to prepare to the public for a bloody struggle on another front, even as Russia made a steady record in the fierce and costly battles in the east.
In their quest to regain territory in the south, Ukrainian officials are facing profound challenges. Russia has been digging for months in parts of the region, complicating evacuation routes for civilians and forcing Kyiv to decide how much damage it is willing to inflict on towns and cities. – even if a counterattack is ultimately successful – the country will have to rebuild.
Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, said: “Please, go, because our Army will definitely occupy these lands. In a sign of the dilemma facing Ukraine, she pointed out that civilians may first have to flee to Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014 and the main base for the invasion. of Moscow.
Russian forces have stepped up their search at checkpoints in the region and prevented civilians from reaching areas controlled by Ukraine. The safest way out, she said, for many of the 500,000 people still living in the Kherson region might be to head south to Crimea.
“We know that today it is almost the only humanitarian corridor that exists, if it can be called that, can be used to leave,” Ms. Vereshchuk told a news conference on Monday. . “So if you can, get out there, especially if you have kids.”
From Crimea, she urges people to find their way to another country, where they can contact the local Ukrainian consulate. She did not elaborate on how Ukrainians might leave Crimea.
Although it is unclear when or whether Ukraine will launch an extensive offensive, they have staged limited counterattacks that have left the Russians on the defensive. The Ukrainians are currently battling Russian forces trying to hold their defenses less than 12 miles from Kherson, the only capital of the region to fall to Russian forces since the February 24 invasion.
The Russians used indiscriminate, heavy bombardment to level entire towns and villages before infantry troops moved in to take over the ruins. But just as other towns and cities fell rapidly in the first days of the war, Kherson was spared the kind of widespread destruction that defined Russia’s advance.
Now, the Ukrainians are grappling with complicated calculations in the battle to regain lost lands.
Ukrainian officials have stressed the importance of keeping locals on their side – a task that can be complicated later months of Russian occupation and propaganda. Ministry of Defense of Russia say on Tuesday that they had repaired the last of seven television towers in the Kherson region to broadcast Russian channels.
The Ukrainian military also hopes to use the local population behind the enemy’s front lines as a force to multiply by organizing sabotage operations, scouting enemy targets, and generally creating an environment. hostile to the occupying forces.
That could include attacks like a weekend attack on three Russian soldiers as they sat at a waterfront cafe in Kherson. Two people were killed and a third had to be transported to a hospital in Crimea for treatment after they were attacked by an unidentified gunman, according to Ukraine’s military command.
Ukraine also needs to assess how much damage it is willing to inflict in any attempt to retake Kherson, as if successful, Kyiv will have to rebuild. “If the city is destroyed, then why liberate it?” Oleksandr Samoilenko, a Kherson official asked.
But the Russians had months to strengthen their position.
“It will be very, very difficult to open a humanitarian corridor when there are children there,” Ms. Vereshchuk said. “It was difficult in Mariupol, in Kherson it was even harder.”
Military analysts have warned that it could very well be several weeks before the Ukrainians acquire the more powerful weapons and ammunition needed to launch a widespread offensive in the south. But Ukrainian forces continue to set the stage for a large-scale offensive.
Ukraine’s military’s southern command said on Tuesday that Russia was forced to “take desperate measures” to maintain its outer defenses, including launching a “missile strike”. great”.
There were no reports of casualties and the area’s air defenses had limited damage, according to the military.
