| Fighting intensifies near Kherson |
| Russian troops are forcibly relocating people from occupied areas near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a Ukrainian official said yesterday, suggesting it could indicate that Moscow’s forces might be preparing to withdraw further from that area ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. |
| The assertions could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities. However, at other points in the war, evacuations from Russian-occupied areas have precipitated an eventual pullback of Russian forces in the face of Ukrainian advances. And in Moscow’s view, Kherson is one of several Ukrainian regions that are now legally part of Russia. |
| Russian forces retreated from Kherson in November and decamped to just across the Dnipro River, from where they have continued to launch attacks on the city. |
| Context: Citing Russian military bloggers, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, said in a report that Ukrainian forces had been attacking Russian troops dug into the riverbanks a mile or so outside Kherson. Residents of the city said that the Ukrainian military had been increasingly active along the river. |
| In other news from the war: |
| “I cry quietly”: A Ukrainian soldier describes the war’s toll.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, banned Russian place names and made knowledge of Ukrainian language and history a requirement for citizenship.Many Russian prisoners are H.I.V. positive. They were promised anti-viral medications if they agreed to fight. |
