Local people queue to fill up bottles with fresh drinking water, as the main supply pipeline for drinking water for the city was damaged in Kherson region at the beginning of Russia鈥檚 attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine October 16, 2022. REUTERS FILE PHOTO
The Russian-installed leader of the annexed Ukrainian region of Kherson said on Wednesday that authorities plan to evacuate around 50-60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Speaking on an online broadcast of 鈥淪oloviev Live鈥�, Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said authorities were moving civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro in order to 鈥渒eep people safe鈥� and allow the military to 鈥渁ct resolutely鈥�.
鈥淚 drove through the regional centre this morning. On the exterior, there was nothing to suggest there was a lot of pressure,鈥� Saldo said.
鈥淏ut when I arrived at the river port I saw that the boats were waiting and are already loaded with people ready to go to the left bank of the Dnipro,鈥� he said, adding that the situation 鈥渋s getting tense.鈥�
He said an estimated 10,000 people a day would be moved over the next six days, and that some regions in Russia were being prepared to accept people.
More than 5,000 people have already left Kherson in the last two days, Saldo told state television.
Russian forces in the Kherson region have been driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km-long Dnipro river that traverses through Ukraine.
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