“The situation in the area of the special military operation can be described as tense. The enemy is not giving up its attempts to attack Russian troop positions,” General Sergey Surovikin, who has been in charge of operations in Ukraine for ten days, told Russian public television Rossia 24. “The Ukrainian regime is seeking to break through our defence”, bringing together “all its reserves” for the counter-offensive, he said.
According to General Surovikin, the situation is “very difficult” in particular in Kherson, capital of the eponymous region militarily occupied by Russia since the spring and annexed in September in southern Ukraine, due to Ukrainian strikes targeting “social infrastructure, economic and industrial” of the city.
Sites damaged by the strikes include the Kakhovka power station dam and the Antonovskiy bridge linking the north and south banks of the Dnieper River, according to the same source.
These strikes lead to disruptions in the supply of electricity, water and food in Kherson, said General Surovikin, denouncing a “direct threat to the lives of the inhabitants”.
Population evacuated
“The Russian army will ensure above all the safe evacuation of the population,” he announced.
“Further actions concerning the city of Kherson itself will depend on the military situation”, specified the Russian general, advocating “the need to preserve the maximum number of lives of the civilian population and the Russian military”.
“We do not rule out very difficult decision-making,” he added.