The Russian leaders in Ukraine’s Kherson region bagan relocating up to 60,000 people amid warnings against Russia’s ability to withstand a counter offensive from Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using hysteria to persuade people to leave. The residents were told to evacuate over text messages from the administration stating that Ukraine would be shelling residential areas.
Also on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he introduced martial law in Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions that it claims to have annexed. The other regions include Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukrainian forces have been advancing through several parts of the Kherson region in the past weeks, recapturing villages and farmland along the right bank of the Dnipro River. Ukrainian officials believe that fewer than half of Kherson’s civilian population are left in the city.
