1:03 p.m. ET, November 4, 2022
Russian-appointed official says city of Kherson is "calm" Friday but warns of possible Ukrainian movement
From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva
A Russian-appointed official says "everything is calm in Kherson city" Friday but again warned Ukrainian forces could be preparing for an attack on the city.
Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy head of Kherson's region military administration, said that while there has been no advance by Kyiv's forces, Ukrainian military equipment has been lined up in columns in some parts of the region.
He said the Ukrainians could be preparing for an attack on Kherson city and again warned residents should evacuate. But currently, "Kherson city is under the defense of Russian servicemen," Stremousov said
in a Telegram post Friday.
A senior Moscow-appointed official's remark Thursday that Russian troops
will "most likely" fall back from positions in Kherson has led to some confusion about the situation on the ground there. A Ukrainian official suggested the statement could be a trap.
What Ukrainian authorities are saying: Serhii Khlan, a member of the Kherson Regional Council, said that residents in the city are seeing an increased military presence in the streets.
Ukrainian forces hit a Russian troops' distribution center in Oleshky on the east bank of the Dnieper river Thursday night. In an interview with Ukrainian station Espreso TV Friday morning, Khlan said Russian troops are carrying out forced evacuations by making residents leave their homes so that the military can move into them. He said it is "happening everywhere in the east bank" of the river.
Kherson regional police said Friday that the agency has begun 42 criminal proceedings over what it called "war crimes" by Russians in the region in the last 24 hours.
In Oleshky, "the occupiers are stealing cars, taking homes away from locals and invading their homes. Russians are settling in recreation facilities," according to police. The department added that there have been reports of kidnapping in the cities of Kherson and Kalanchak in the last 24 hours.
In Kherson city, police said Russians are destroying water-crossing equipment with explosives and are shooting and burning boats.