The battle for Kherson is likely to rage from street to street. It is the most significant city captured by Russian forces and is the capital of a region annexed by the Kremlin last month.
Pamphlets have appeared in apartment blocks across the city, from both Russian and Ukrainian forces, urging people to leave ahead of the battle.
Anna, 35, said that people were cooperating with the Russian forces because they were scared and hungry after eight months of occupation. She also refused to give her surname as she said that she supported Ukraine and could be arrested.
“The enemy has taken up position in empty houses near my home,” she said. “The terrorists tell everybody that Kherson will not be surrendered.”
Up to 60,000 people to be evacuated
Kherson is both strategically and symbolically important. Russian forces walked into the city without a fight in February and had planned to make it a role model for Ukrainian regions joining Russia, imposing the Russian school curriculum and the rouble currency.
But residents of Kherson have described how Russian forces ruled through fear, arresting dissenters and people who spoke Ukrainian in public. There have been reports of Russian soldiers raping women and stealing.
Kherson is important because it commands the Dnipro River, which winds down through Ukraine, and also defends the route to Crimea. Losing control of Kherson would be a major setback for Russian forces and another blow to the Kremlin’s prestige. It would also give Ukrainian forces the option of marching on Crimea which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.
Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-installed head of Kherson city, said that he wanted to evacuate up to 60,000 people and close off the city ahead of the battle “because of the tense situation on the contact line and the increased threat of a massive rocket and artillery strike”.
Saldo only returned to Kherson from Moscow in September, after spending nearly two months in hospital recovering from being poisoned in an alleged assassination attempt by Ukrainian partisans. As part of the information war, he said that Ukrainian forces planned to destroy an upstream dam to flood the city.
With the arrival of Western long-range artillery over the summer, Ukraine started to gain momentum on the battlefield and its military identified Kherson as a priority target.
General given free hand in Ukraine
In his first interview since being appointed as overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine earlier this month, General Sergei Surovikin told Russian TV that the battle for Kherson was now approaching.
“Our plans and action around Kherson city will depend on the emerging military tactical situation,” he said. “I repeat, it is already a very difficult situation.”
Considered cruel and uncaring, even by the standards of the notorious Russian army, the Kremlin has reportedly given Gen Surovikin a free hand in Ukraine. His only requirement is to win the war for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president.
The Russian military has suffered a series of routs over the past couple of months and has been criticised for running a poor campaign in Ukraine. Analysts have said that Gen Surovikin will be determined to restore the reputation of the Russian army as a fighting force and throw everything at defending Kherson city from Ukrainian advances.
