In the city and in the Kherson region, the army and authorities of Ukraine tried to restore security and order after the liberation from the Russian occupiers over the weekend. While the Russian withdrawal was celebrated on the streets, the head of administration appointed by Kyiv, Yaroslav Yanushevych, warned that the Russian army was fortifying its positions on the other, left-hand side of the Dnipro River, over which it had withdrawn.
The “enemy” shoots at the areas he has just left. One of the main tasks is to clear the region of mines. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that Ukrainian troops would one day reach all sections of Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. By Saturday evening, more than 60 towns had been liberated in the Kherson region and “nearly 2,000 explosive objects had been discovered,” including mines and booby traps.
In the city of Cherson alone, ten groups of pyrotechnicians are on the move, according to Zelenskyj. At the same time, telephone and radio connections as well as the supply of electricity, heat, water and, in some places, gas must be restored. At the same time there was fierce fighting in the Donbass region in the east of the country. Moscow announced that Russian soldiers had conquered the small town of Majorsk near Horliwka.
Open conflicts in Russia over mobilization
Meanwhile, the occupiers have moved their “capital” of the Kherson region further east to the small port town of Henichesk on the Crimean border. The commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin, claimed that 115,000 civilians who had asked for it were also transferred with the troops across the Dnieper.
On the occupied left bank of the Dnieper, the Russians have also announced that they will evacuate the small town of Nowa Kakhovka. It is close to a dam and hydroelectric power station on the river. The administration is withdrawing with the citizens of the city, said the local crew chief Pawel Filipchuk. It is feared that the dam could be destroyed by shelling and the area could be flooded. Russians and Ukrainians accuse each other of planning such an action.
Meanwhile, images were circulating on social media that indicate open conflicts in Russia over the mobilization. The relatives of conscripted men, mostly women, engaged in heated arguments with Russian officials; a group of women went off on their own and reached the Ukrainian border, where they demanded that officers “give our men back” to them. The protests were triggered by news that mobilized Russians were being sent to the front without adequate training and supplies, and many of them were being shelled and killed.
