MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Authorities in the Kherson Region are planning to temporarily resettle some 50,000-60,000 people from the right bank of the Dnieper River to the left bank or to other Russian regions, Acting Governor Vladimir Saldo said on Wednesday.
"According to our estimates, we are planning to relocate 50,000 to 60,000 people to the left bank [of the Dnieper] or to other Russian regions, if anyone desires," Saldo told the Soloviev Live television program.
Officials expect that the process would take about six days, said Saldo, who insisted that the measure was transitory. "All of us believe this will be a temporary measure - during the period that the combat mission assigned to the military will be carried out," he added.
The regional authorities will do their best to protect as many civilians as possible from the situation along the line of contact and from Ukrainian shelling, Saldo assured. "This is what the entire operation is for - to keep people safe, while empowering the military to act resolutely without glancing over their shoulders, so that there are no civilians behind the military," he said.
On Tuesday, Saldo said civilians living on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region would be evacuated to the left bank amid the risk of flooding in the event that Ukrainian forces attack the Kakhovka hydro power plant. The official also said that Ukraine had been amassing huge forces near Nikolayev and Krivoy Rog. He explained that another reason behind the decision to resettle locals temporarily was the need to build large-scale defensive fortifications.