MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Kherson’s authorities have everything they need to evacuate people from the right bank of the Dnieper River to its left bank, the city’s mayor, Alexander Kobets said on Friday.
"We have all the means, <…> we have everything needed for the evacuation," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
When asked to comment on photos of the Antonovka Bridge with two damaged sections circulated on the internet, he said that such matters are beyond the competence of the local authorities. "These activities are conducted with the oversight of the military. The city’s authorities do not interfere in these things. I think everything has been done to ensure people’s security," Kobets said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on November 9 ordered a pullback of troops from the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region to its left bank, a move suggested by Commander of Russia’s Integrated Group of Forces in Ukraine Sergey Surovikin, who stressed that the Russian military had successfully repulsed all Ukrainian attacks. The decision to move the forces back, in his words, was also due to the risk of their isolation, should territories downstream from the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant be flooded. Surovikin said that all civilians who wished to leave - more than 115,000 people - had already been evacuated from the right bank.
The Antonovka bridge was opened in December 1985. It is 1,300 meters long and 25 meters wide, making it one of the longest in Ukraine. It has been shelled by Ukrainian troops more than once. Traffic has been partially closed due to its unsafe condition following shelling attacks.