The Ukrainian government has accused the Russian Armed Forces of trying to turn Kherson into a «city of death», with hidden mines that would allegedly serve as traps before the entry of Ukrainian troops, who aim to recapture the only provincial capital occupied since the start of the invasion in February.
«The Russian army has mined everything it could: apartments, sewers. Artillery on the left bank (of the Dnieper River) plans to turn the city into ruins,» said Mikhail Podoliak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
«This is what the ‘Russian world’ looks like: they came, stole, celebrated, killed ‘witnesses’, left ruins and left,» he has reviewed on Twitter, a day after Moscow confirmed the withdrawal and final move to the right bank of the Dnieper following the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
The Russian government has avoided assuming this withdrawal as a defeat and speaks instead of logistical issues. Meanwhile, Kiev does not rule out that the whole thing is a trap to launch a counter-offensive, a thesis shared in recent days by both military and political authorities.
British military intelligence also sees it as «probable» that Russian forces have left mines in the areas from which they are now withdrawing in order to delay the advance of Ukrainian troops. To this end, they have also destroyed several bridges in the region, one of the four that Russia claims as its own after the fraudulent referendums.
