GENICHESK, December 12./TASS/. Ukrainian troops have killed at least 20 people in the Berislav district of the Kherson region, including members of the district election commissions who were involved in organizing the referendum, Alexander Malkevich, from the Russian Civic Chamber, told TASS on Monday.
"Regretfully, we confirm the information about the execution of at least 20 people by Ukrainian punitive forces in the Berislav district. There is information that among those shot dead were members of district election commissions who had worked on the referendum, and who for some reason refused to leave. Of course, this is an execution, this is revenge for their civic position," said Malkevich, who is also a freelance advisor to the region’s governor.
He believes that Kiev could use the bodies of the executed people for staged provocations. "They will say that these members of district election commissions refused to leave and were brutally murdered by the Russians," Malkevich admitted.
On November 9, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu agreed with a proposal made by the commander of the Russian army group in the special military operation zone, Sergey Surovikin, for the pullback of Russian troops in the Kherson Region from the right bank of the Dnieper to the left bank. Surovikin stressed that the Russian military had successfully repulsed all Ukrainian attacks. The decision to move the forces back was 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.