MADRID, 3 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
In recent hours, the Ukrainian authorities have released information about alleged advances on the Kherson front, in southern Ukraine, at a time when Russia, which has already considered the evacuation of the regional capital to be complete, is reluctant to recognize defeats on the military front.
The vice-president of the Jerson Regional Council, Yuri Sobolevski, has posted on his Telegram account an image of the provincial administration building to prove that it no longer waves the Russian flag. “Jershon was, is and will be Ukrainian,” he has proclaimed.
The Ukrainian authorities do not trust the Russian withdrawal either, as recognized by a spokeswoman for the Armed Forces, Natakia Humeniuk, who does not rule out that it may be some “trick”, in such a way that there is some kind of “provocation” to accuse to kyiv to attack the civilian population, according to the UNIAN agency.
Russia, for its part, has in recent weeks organized a mass evacuation of Jerson, in which tens of thousands of people would have crossed to the left bank of the Dnieper River, where the pro-Russian administration it has controlled for months has also moved the area.
Moscow has concluded these works and has confirmed the closure of river traffic on the Dnieper, with few exceptions. He denies that it is a withdrawal and alleges, instead, that he wants to protect the population against an anticipated indiscriminate offensive by the Ukrainian forces.
The pro-Russian deputy governor, Kiril Stremousov, also assured this Thursday that “all the attacks” have been repelled, according to an interview collected by the TASS news agency. “We do not observe a massive and rapid offensive or a large accumulation of Nazi troops,” he has argued, referring to the Ukrainians.
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia now claims as its own, along with Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Referendums were held in all of them, the legitimacy of which neither kyiv nor all of its Western allies have recognized.
