Russian officials are fleeing Kherson as troops near, claims resident

Russians ‘flee’ Kherson: Putin loyalists, officials and collaborators are among thousands evacuating city as advancing Ukrainian troops close in, claims resident – after Putin unleashed missile blitz on power stations

• Russia has declared a ‘civilian’ evacuation from Kherson to occupied Crimea
• But residents say Russian officers and collaborators are being evacuated instead
• The Ukrainian army is advancing on the city, captured by Russia in March
• Vladimir Putin had left millions of Ukrainians without power after recent attacks 

Russian officers and collaborators are evacuating Kherson under the guise of a ‘civilian evacuation’ as the Ukrainian army approaches, one resident has said.

The Ukrainian army has set its sights on liberating Kherson, the second largest city in Ukraine, from Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Russia has declared a civilian evacuation to funnel residents into Russia, but civilians living there say they aren’t the ones being evacuated.

‘Mostly it’s families of Russian officers, families of Russian officials and collaborators who helped to organise the referendum,’ said a local Kherson-based activist and organiser, speaking to Sky News on condition of anonymity.

‘Among them are teachers and doctors, municipal workers and kindergarten staff. Those who have taken Russian passports.’

Roughly a thousand people are fleeing a day, but made up mostly of either Russians or those who aided the Russian advance in the early weeks of the war when Putin’s troops captured the city on March 2.

‘Due to the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the (east) bank of the Dnipro!’ occupation authorities posted on Telegram.

Russian officers and collaborators are evacuating Kherson reportedly under the guise of a ‘civilian evacuation’

The Ukrainian army is advancing on the city, captured by Russia in March. Residents say Russian officers and collaborators are being evacuated to Crimea

Thousands of civilians have left Kherson after warnings of a Ukrainian offensive to recapture the city

People arrived from Kherson wait for further evacuation into the depths of Russia at the Dzhankoi’s railway station in Crimea

People evacuated from the Russian-controlled Kherson region of Ukraine arrive at a railway station in the town of Dzhankoi, Crimea

Around 15,000 people, which Ukrainian residents say are officers and collaborators, have been pulled from the territory that Russia claims to have annexed in the face of a Ukrainian advance

Ukraine’s military said it was making gains as its forces moved south through the region, taking over at least two villages it said Russian troops had abandoned.

Kherson links Ukraine to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram: ‘Kherson region! Just a little bit more. Hang in there. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are at work.’

Russia has spent weeks launching a series of devastating strikes against Ukraine’s power infrastructure, leaving millions without power.

Russia has been using drones imported from Iran to destroy Ukrainian facilities and attack Kyiv, with Iran denying its involvement.

The strikes hit at least half its thermal power generation and up to 40% of the entire national grid.

Officials in a swath of regions on Saturday reported strikes on energy facilities and power outages as engineers scrambled to restore the network. Governors advised residents to stock up on water.

More than a million people were without power, said presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

Parts of Kyiv suffered power cuts into the evening, and a city official warned strikes could leave Ukraine’s capital without power and heat for ‘several days or weeks’.

Presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Moscow wanted to create a new wave of refugees into Europe with the strikes, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter the attacks constituted genocide.

A woman gives her thanks for medication after a visit by a Ukrainian army medical team to check the health of civilians in an area recently liberated from Russian occupation on October 22

Army doctor Natalia Leliukh checks the pulse rate of village resident Natalia as she visits civilians in a recently liberated area

Ukrainian forces visited civilians in an area recently liberated from Russian occupation on in Kharkiv

A building lies in ruins after being destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian occupying forces, on October 21 in Bakhmut

Moscow has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure but denies targeting civilians.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the ‘latest mass strike’ affected regions in western, central and southern Ukraine.

‘Of course we don’t have the technical ability to knock down 100% of the Russian missiles and strike drones. I am sure that, gradually, we will achieve that, with help from our partners. Already now, we are downing a majority of cruise missiles, a majority of drones.’

Ukrainian forces had downed 20 missiles and more than 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Saturday, he said.

The air force command earlier had said 33 missiles had been fired at Ukraine, with 18 shot down.

Firefighters work to put out a fire at energy infrastructure facilities, damaged by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues

Missiles rained down on power facilities from Odesa, the Black Sea resort in the south, to Kovel, a medieval town near the Belarus border in the north, leaving about 40 per cent of the energy infrastructure out of action. Pictured: Firefighters in the Rivne region

No new developments were reported regarding the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Zelenskiy on Friday urged the West to warn Moscow not to blow up the Russian-controlled dam on the Dnipro.

Russia has accused Kyiv of rocketing the dam and planning to destroy it in what Ukrainian officials called a sign that Moscow might blow it up and blame Kyiv. Neither side has produced evidence to back up their allegations.

The Soviet-era structure holds back 4.3 cubic miles of water, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah.

Its destruction could devastate much of the Kherson region. It supplies water to Crimea and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Regarding the Zaporizhzhia plant, considered a potential flashpoint for catastrophe, the Group of Seven industrial powers on Saturday condemned Russia’s kidnapping of the Ukraine-operated plant’s leaders and called for the immediate return of full control of the plant to Ukraine.

Russian servicemen patrol at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, Kherson Oblast, amid the ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine

The Nova Kakhovka dam has been hit by Ukrainian missiles in the past because it is topped by a road used to supply Putin’s troops, but they have stopped short of destroying it 

Seized by Russia at the beginning of the war, the Kakhovka dam provides one of the last remaining routes over the Dnipro river in the region

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