Kherson braces for battle as Russian adminration evacuates

With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently girding to battle for the city of Kherson, signs of Kremlin rule are disappearing from the city’s streets while the remaining residents, unsure what to believe and afraid of what comes next, are stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat.
Russian soldiers, patrols, and checkpoints have suddenly become extremely scarce in the city center, according to residents, and most civilians have left. The Russian tricolor flag, raised over government offices after Moscow’s forces captured Kherson in February, was missing Thursday from the main regional adminrative building and other sites.
“On one hand I was happy to see that, but on the other I’m worried that it would be anarchy now,” a Kherson resident, Oleksandr — who asked that his surname be withheld for his safety — said. “So I bought extra stuff as I don’t know whether it would be safe to move around the city in the next days or weeks.”
Kremlin-appointed adminrators have relocated to a site 50 miles away — after looting anything of value they could take, residents and Ukrainian officials said.
But Russian troops have not decamped from the area. Ukrainian military intelligence says Russia has deployed some 40,000 soldiers to the western bank of the Dnieper River to stop the Ukrainian military from reclaiming Kherson.
As Ukrainian forces advance from the north and west, they are encountering fierce resance, and Ukrainian officials have said they expect the battle for the southern city to be brutal, as its loss would be a major strategic and symbolic loss for Russia.
Like Kherson, much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been largely depopulated since the Russian invasion in February. More than 14 million people — about one-third of the prewar population — have been driven from their homes.
Kherson, which fell in the first days of the invasion, is the only regional capital captured the Russians. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers expressed concern Thursday about what they said were suggestions that Russia might be preparing not just a civilian withdrawal but a military one, ceding the city to the Ukrainians.
Ukrainian officials dismissed such talk as a feint, meant to lure their forces into a trap. Russians have been seen in recent days fortifying defensive positions outside the city.