People try to get an evacuation train at Kyiv central train station on March 4, 2022. – Ukraine accused the Kremlin of “nuclear terror” on March 4, after Europe’s largest atomic power plant was attacked and taken over by invading forces, sparking Western horror at the threat of Russia’s war contaminating all of Europe. (Photo by Sergei CHUZAVKOV / AFP)

Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine said Tuesday that tens of thousands more people would be evacuated from the Kherson region amid Kyiv’s counter-offensive.

The Russian-installed leader of Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said some 70,000 people along a 15-kilometre (10-mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro river would be moved deeper into the region or to Russia.

“We have already begun this work,” he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel.

He said the resettlement was being carried out because of the risk of a “massive missile attack” by Ukrainian forces on a local dam.

Russia’s occupation authorities last week said that 70,000 civilians left their homes located on the right bank of the Dnipro River.

On Monday Saldo had said the latest evacuations would allow the Russian army to set up defences and repel a possible Ukrainian attack.

Kyiv’s forces are preparing for a fierce battle to retake the region’s main city Kherson and the surrounding areas on the right bank of the Dnipro River after making major gains in Ukraine’s east and south.

The city, with a pre-war population of around 288,000 people, was one of the first to fall to Moscow’s forces after President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in February. Retaking it would mark a major milestone for Kyiv.

AFP