Occupiers Evacuating Their Families from Kherson Region and Crimea in Panic

The strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Antonivka and Kakhovka bridges, as well as explosions at the military airfield in Novofedorivka in Crimea, made the Russian military panic. They are in a hurry to take their families back to Russia. In particular, huge queues to leave the peninsula are being observed in Crimea. According to Yaroslav Yanushevych, Head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, “yesterday the Antonivka bridge was surrounded on both sides; local residents were not allowed to come close. Russian military families who lived in Kherson also started to leave massively.”

As a reminder, the Ukrainian military again struck the Antonivka bridge and the Kakhovka HPP bridge on 8 August. Both bridges link the left and the right banks of the Dnipro River in the temporarily occupied Kherson region.

On 9 August, explosions rang out at a military airfield in Novofedorivka in Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia. Planes that attacked southern Ukraine with missiles used to take off from this airfield. The so-called “head of Crimea” Sergey Aksyonov reported that one person had been killed and six more were injured. Meanwhile, a high (yellow) level of terrorist danger was declared in Crimea.

Ukraine has not confirmed its involvement in the explosions. Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated that Kyiv had nothing to do with explosions at Novofedorivka airfield but did not rule out that guerillas had been involved.

Photo credit: Ihor Smiliansky

Natalia Tolub