Ukraine: Civilians should leave liberated areas this winter
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently-liberated areas of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, fearing that Russian damage to the infrastructure and the lack of heat, power and water is too severe for people to endure the upcoming winter, officials said Monday. The evacuations come as rolling blackouts plague most of the country.
Residents of the two southern regions, which have been shelled for months by Russian forces, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and and western parts of the country, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
The government will provide “transportation, accommodation, medical care," she said.
The evacuations come more than a week after Ukraine retook the city of Kherson, which is on the western bank of the Dnieper River, and areas around it. The liberation marked a major battlefield gain for Ukraine, but the evacuations now highlight the difficulties the country is facing following heavy Russian shelling of its power infrastructure as freezing weather sets in.
Ukraine is known for its brutal winter weather, and snow has already covered Kyiv, the capital, and other cities.
Russia has set up defense lines along the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, fearing that Ukrainian forces would push deeper into the region. In the weeks before Ukraine's successful counteroffensive, it encouraged and helped tens of thousands of Kherson city residents to evacuate to Russian-held areas.
On Monday, Russian-installed authorities in the Kherson region also urged residents to evacuate an area on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River that Moscow now controls. Officials cited a high level of military fighting in the Kakhovskiy district as they asked residents to go to...
