Kherson residents urged to leave over Russian attacks

Residents of Kherson in southern Ukraine were urged on Thursday to leave because intensifying Russian attacks could cut electricity and heating for an extended period, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Prokudin appealed especially to families with children and elderly people to leave if they were able to do so. He said Kherson faced an “extremely difficult security situation” as attacks on critical infrastructure increased.

Prokudin said Russian forces had again attacked the city’s district heating plant overnight with glide bombs, causing very serious damage. He warned that Kherson could be left without electricity or heating “not for hours or days but for a long period.”

Kherson had about 280,000 residents before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The city was under Russian control from March to November 2022. Russian forces are now positioned on the opposite side of the Dnipro river and regularly shell the city.