International

Ukraine tells residents to leave occupied south due to counter-attack plans

By Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on Sunday urged civilians within the Russian-occupied southern area of Kherson to urgently evacuate as Ukraine’s armed forces had been getting ready a counter-attack there.

Ukraine misplaced management of a lot of the Black Sea area of Kherson, together with its eponymous capital, within the first weeks after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

“It is clear there might be preventing, there might be artillery shelling… and we due to this fact urge (individuals) to evacuate urgently,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk stated on nationwide tv.

She stated she couldn’t say when precisely the counter-offensive would occur.

“I do know for certain that there shouldn’t be girls and kids there, and that they need to not change into human shields,” she stated.

Kherson’s Russian-installed authorities say they wish to maintain a referendum on seceding to Russia, however they haven’t but set a date. The Kremlin says the way forward for the area must be decided by its residents.

The Kherson area consists of the town of Kherson, which earlier than the warfare had a inhabitants of practically 300,000. It isn’t recognized how most of the metropolis’s residents are nonetheless there.

(Reporting by Max Hunder; Modifying by Tom Balmforth and Frances Kerry)



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