Exciting location in Kherson

The Russian occupation government in Kherson announced on Saturday that civilians are to evacuate the city as Ukrainian forces approach the city.

From the city comes information about looting and unrest.

– People are emotionally exhausted, says one woman to CNN.

The situation in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, in the region of the same name, is described as tense by one resident.

The woman, who CNN spoke to shortly before the announcement about the evacuation of civilians, says that the streets are deserted from the afternoons onwards and that Kherson has become a ghost town.

– People are emotionally exhausted, some simply do not want to leave their homes to avoid coming into contact with the military. It is impossible to relax here. In the evenings if I hear a car driving near the house, I get nervous, because a car late at night is not a good sign, she says.

“My home”

The woman says that everyone is afraid of the coming winter, that there is a shortage of medicine and milk substitute. However, she does not want to leave the city.

– If I’m honest, I’m pissed off by the question. This is my country, Kherson is my home. We took part in demonstrations against the occupiers already in the first days of the war, we fought as hard as we could. The fight is still going on, she says.

Queuing to escape

Along the river’s edge, however, people with luggage can be seen queuing, waiting for boats to cross the Dnieper River, which is the city’s natural southern and eastern border. They are collaborators and those who helped the occupation regime, and families of Russian officers, claims an activist for British Sky.

– It is not about more than a few thousand per day, he says.

He claims to have seen newly mobilized Russian soldiers, in clean clothes and “very young”.

– Many of them – like me – have glasses, you can see that they are students, not professional soldiers, he says.

Several shops are said to have been looted.

– In recent days, we have seen them take pictures of fires, ambulances, equipment from cancer clinics and from the regional hospital, all of higher value. They quickly take it, load it on cars and drive it to Crimea. The city is being robbed, he says.