New Delhi: General Sergei Surovikin, who was appointed as the new commander of the Russian forces earlier this month, on Tuesday acknowledged that his forces are under pressure from Ukrainian offensives to recapture southern and eastern areas that Moscow claims to have occupied recently.
Stating concern for the Russian forces, the Kremlin-appointed chief of the strategic southern region of Kherson also informed about the "organised, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the Dnipro River. "The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," said Sergei Surovikin, the Russian air force general now commanding Russia's invasion forces, reported news agency Reuters, citing state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel.
‘Situation In Kherson Difficult’
The 55-year-old veteran, who had earned nicknames such as the “fierce one” and “General Armageddon”, according to the Financial Times report, said, "The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson."
Russian forces in Kherson have been moved back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and face the risk of being pinned against the western bank of the 2,200-km-long Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine, reported Reuters.
Apart from Kherson, Russian troop positions in Kupiansk and Lyman in eastern Ukraine and the area between Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih in Kherson province have come under continuous attack, according to Surovikin, the news agency reported.
He also conceded that there was a danger of Ukrainian forces advancing towards the city of Kherson, which lies near the mouth of the Dnipro on the west bank.
Kherson, one of four partially-occupied Ukrainian provinces that Russia claims to have annexed, controls both the land route to the Crimea peninsula Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro.
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed council governing Zaporizhzhia, also in Ukraine's south, said Kyiv's forces had increased the intensity of overnight shelling of Russian-held Enerhodar, the town mostly occupied by employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.
Artillery fire had hit the town's outskirts and there had been 10 strikes around the local thermal power station, Rogov said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday, according to the report.