ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 18. /TASS/. The city of Kherson will soon be returned under Russia’s control, Acting Governor of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo said on Saturday.

According to Saldo, it will happen very soon.

"People ask me, ‘What do you think about Kherson?’ I have one thing in mind that in the near future, very soon, Kherson will again be part of the Kherson Region within the Russian Federation," Saldo told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar for regional headquarters of volunteers of the We Are Together campaign.

Saldo emphasized that Kherson had been left temporarily and praised the Russian People’s Front for the city’s evacuation.

"A large-scale operation was organized to evacuate residents," he said. "Almost 150,000 residents of Kherson and people living on the right bank [of the Dnieper River] were relocated to the left bank," he said.

On October 18, 2022, Saldo said civilians living on the western bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region would be evacuated to the eastern bank amid the risk of flooding in the event that Ukrainian forces attack the Kakhovka hydro power plant. On October 31, Saldo said that the evacuation area would be expanded by 15 km along the eastern bank of the Dnieper in the region.