Occupying authorities in Kherson announce ‘mandatory evacuation’ near Kakhovka hydropower station
Vladimir Saldo, Russian-appointed head of the annexed part of the Kherson region, announced the evacuation of residents of areas within a 15-kilometer [about nine-mile] radius of the Dnipro.
His video address says the evacuation will affect the Novokakhovka urban district, and the Hola Prystan, Oleshky, Kakhovka, Hornostaivka, Velyka Lepetykha, and Verkhnii Rohachyk administrative regions.
The occupying administration of the Kakhovka area posted Saldo’s order on the “mandatory removal (evacuation)” of residents, as well as of governmental departments and municipal enterprises, on its Telegram channel.
In its next post, occupying authorities warn those who want to stay that authorities will use “forced evacuation measures” beginning on November 6:
All residents! Leave your village immediately. Your lives are in danger. A high level military threat is expected. Evacuation is being implemented by organized automobile transport. Go to an evacuation point. Take your documents, money, valuables, and warm clothes. From November 6, we will apply forced evacuation measures to those who remain.
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In the occupied part of the Kherson region, an “organized transfer” of residents to the left (east) bank of the Dnipro started on October 19. As of October 26, representatives of the occupying administration said 70,000 people had been removed.
Vladimir Saldo explained the evacuation by saying that Ukraine is preparing a large-scale offensive and that Ukrainian forces allegedly intend to the destroy the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. The American think tank the Institute for the Study of War has said that Russia is preparing to damage the dam and then blame Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the Russian military has mined the dam.