Russian occupation authorities announced this Friday the partial evacuation of civilians from 18 enclaves in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, located in areas close to the battlefront. The mayor of Energodar, Dmitro Orlov, who has been in exile in the region’s capital for months but maintains sources of information in the occupied city, told this newspaper that this citizens’ movement is not currently underway and that Moscow wants around among residents to generate “panic” in the affected areas. Although Kiev has kept top secret the details of the counter-offensive it has been preparing for months to regain Russian-held lands, Zaporizhia will most likely be one of the areas from which this major operation will be launched.
Without specifically citing this counter-offensive, the aim of the Russian evacuation is to “strengthen security” since “the enemy has intensified bombardment of settlements in the immediate vicinity of the front line,” according to the governor whom Russia appointed in Zaporizhia, Yevgeny Balitsky. Balitski says in a message published on his social network channel Telegram that his decision is to take children with their parents, the elderly, the disabled and the injured. All of these people are being relocated to other points in the region, farther from the area where the two armies meet each day, he adds.
One of the cities affected by this evacuation is Energodar, which has been in Russian hands since early March last year and where the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, is being built. Mayor Orlov, who, like many other thousands of refugees, had to flee the city, assures that the departure of the citizens announced by the Russian occupation authorities has not yet begun. The First Mayor calculates that of the 53,000 people Energodar had before the invasion, only about 14,000 remain today.
According to the governor’s message released by Moscow, the other cities affected by the evacuation operation are: Timoshivka, Smirnivka, Tarasivka, Orlianske, Molochansk, Kuibishevo, Prishib, Tokmak, Mala Bilozerka, Vasilivka, Velika Bilozerka, Dniprorudne, Mikhailivka, Kamianka -Dniprovska, Polohi , Kinski Rozdori, Rozivka. The Russian authorities will be responsible for transportation, accommodation and subsistence during the time these people are away from their homes, according to the above-mentioned announcement.
The Telegram chats through which the neighbors communicate claim that the operation announced by Moscow is due to the upcoming Ukrainian counter-offensive and that some of the Russian officials are burning documents in the occupied cities that could give them away before escaping, according to this newspaper to not confirm. Other reports speak of supply bottlenecks at gas stations and traffic jams from the city of Melitopol towards the Crimean Peninsula.
Military analysts say it is likely that the Ukrainian counter-offensive will target the area. The southern regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson are expected to be the scene of what is expected to be a major military operation, with the local army testing Moscow’s engagement after more than 14 months of confrontation over the invasion of Ukraine.
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About half of the 334 square kilometer Zaporizhia region, which had just over 700,000 inhabitants before the major offensive in February last year, is in Russian hands. The cities in the occupied territory have lost a large part of their population, and especially the cities close to hostilities are almost deserted.
Russia is trying to prevent the emigration of people from the areas under its control to the territory under the authority of Kiev. In these more than 14 months, the city of Zaporizhia has received hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the occupation of this province and the neighboring provinces of Donetsk and Kherson. The occupation authorities are attempting to impose on those who remain the Russian passport, which is increasingly necessary to conduct official business, move from one place to another, go to the bank or enroll children in the school where the education system in Moscow was imposed. The use of the local currency, the hryvnia, is becoming increasingly difficult against the dominant ruble. The unreasonable demands of the Russian media and the Kremlin’s propaganda are also the order of the day.
Zaporizhia is one of the four regions of Ukraine that Russia has considered part of its territory since September last year, after holding referendums without any legal recognition or guarantees. The other three are Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk. No country in the world officially recognizes this illegal annexation like that of the Crimean peninsula, an area where the Moscow authorities have held power since 2014.
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