New Delhi: President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four Ukrainian regions he claims are part of Russia on Wednesday, as some residents of the Russian-held city of Kherson fled by boat after Moscow warned of an impending attack. Russian state television broadcast images of people fleeing Kherson, portraying the exodus - from the right bank of the Rover Dnipro to its left bank - as an attempt to clear the city of civilians before it became a combat zone. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the local Russia-backed administration, issued a video appeal after Russian forces in the area were pushed back by 20-30 kilometres (13-20 miles) in recent weeks.
They risk being pinned against the western bank of Ukraine's 2,200-kilometre-long (1367-mile-long) Dnipro river. Putin told his Security Council that he was imposing martial law in four Ukrainian regions that it partly occupies and seeks to fully control, including the Kherson region, in a move that appeared to be designed to help Russia strengthen its grip. It was unclear what the immediate impact of much tighter security measures on the ground would be. Putin also issued a decree restricting movement into and out of eight Ukrainian border regions. The head of the Ukrainian president's office, Andriy Yermak, accused Russia of staging a propaganda show in Kherson.
"The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation," Yermak posted a message on the Telegram messaging app. This was reported by Reuters in their article.
After routing Russian forces in some areas, Ukraine is waging major counter-offensives in the east and south to try to take as much territory as possible before winter. Kherson is the largest population centre seized and held by Moscow since the start of its "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24. The city is located on territory that President Vladimir Putin claims have been formally incorporated into Russia, a move that Ukraine and the West oppose. Thousands have been killed, millions have been displaced, Ukrainian cities have been razed, the global economy has been rocked, and Cold War-era geopolitical fissures have resurfaced.
In Kherson, Stremousov said the city and especially its right bank could be shelled by Ukrainian forces, adding that residents who left would be given accommodation inside Russia.
"I ask you to take my words seriously and to interpret them as a call to evacuate as fast as you possibly can," he said. "We do not plan to surrender the city, we will stand until the last moment."
OFFENSIVE EXPECTED
Stremousov's boss, the Russian-installed chief of the Kherson region, said 50,000-60,000 people would be evacuated in the next six days. Kherson had a pre-war population of around 280,000 people, but many have since fled. "The Ukrainian side is building up forces for a large-scale offensive," said Vladimir Saldo, the official, told state TV. "Where the military operates, there is no place for civilians."
Saldo, who said Russia had the resources to hold Kherson and even counterattack if necessary, also said he was banning civilians from entering the region for seven days. Staff at Kherson's Russian-backed administration were also being relocated to the left bank of the Dnipro, he said. The evacuation calls followed a gloomy assessment of Russia's prospects in the area from General Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine.
"The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense,” Surovikin told the state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel. "The situation in this area (Kherson) is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings."
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed council governing Zaporizhzhia, another region in the south, said Ukraine's forces had intensified overnight shelling of Russian-held Enerhodar. Many employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station live there. Artillery fire had hit the town's outskirts and there had been 10 strikes around a thermal power station, he said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.
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Dmytro Orlov, whom Ukraine recognises as mayor of Enerhodar, blamed Russia for the shelling. "The shelling, first of the industrial zone, and then of the city itself, began around midnight and it did not stop in the morning," he posted on Telegram. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi quotes he expected to return soon to Ukraine amid negotiations to establish a protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe's largest nuclear power station. The plant is in one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has proclaimed as annexed but only partly occupies. The other three are Kherson, and the eastern border provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk - together known as Donbas. Putin declared them regions of Russia after staging what Moscow called referendums in September, which Kyiv and Western governments denounced as illegal and coercive.
