‘Not a civilian evacuation’: Collaborators and Russians leaving Kherson, resident says
Fear is a powerful thing and it is motivating many to leave the Ukrainian city of Kherson.
With Ukrainian troops closing in on the city, thousands have left using ferries to cross the great Dnipro River.
Kherson was the first major city to fall to Vladimir Putin’s military after the invasion began in February and its recapture would represent a major prize for the Ukrainians.
In footage filmed for Sky News, we see people in Kherson boarding boats from the city’s piers, their bags and suitcases hauled speedily behind them.
However, who exactly are these evacuees? Russian officials say they are trying to remove all civilians, warning of Ukrainian shelling and “terrorist attacks”.
But in a detailed interview, one resident of Kherson told Sky News that the evacuation is not designed for them.
“This is not a civilian evacuation. The collaborators are running away and those who came to help the occupiers,” said Vlad, a local writer, activist and organiser, whose full name we are not using.
“In truth [those fleeing] number no more than a few thousand people a day.
“And who are those people they are taking out?
“Mostly it’s families of Russian officers, families of Russian officials and collaborators who helped to organise the referendum. Among them are teachers and doctors, municipal workers and kindergarten staff.
“Those who have taken Russian passports.”
Vlad, a Kherson activist,
‘Young Russian troops arriving’
Russian kindergarten workers were shipped in, our interviewee says, to help administer a discredited referendum that preceded Russia’s annexation of the region of Kherson.
There are new arrivals in the city, however, in the form of young and inexperienced Russian troops.
“I think because of the [Russian] mobilisation, we can see new soldiers entering Kherson in fresh uniforms. They are clean, without any dirt, and very young. A lot of them are like me, in glasses, we can see they are students – but not professional soldiers.”
Will the Russians try to defend the western side of the Dnipro River, of which Kherson city is a part? This is question is the source of much speculation.
‘Everything stolen’
Russia’s military chief, General Sergei Surovikin, seemed to raise the prospect of a withdrawal when he told an interviewer that the situation in Kherson has been “difficult”.
Our interviewee simply is not sure.
“I don’t think anybody knows, even the Russian soldiers,” he said. However, the large-scale looting of this city is not something that is open to question.
Sky News has seen pictures of ransacked shops and businesses with signs placed on the front. “Empty,” they read. “Everything’s stolen.” Our interviewee says that everything has been lifted, large and small.
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‘Russia plans to blow-up major dam’
“In the last few days, we’ve seen them take fire trucks, ambulances, equipment from the cancer clinic and the regional hospital, anything of high value. They take it quickly, load it in the cars and take it to Crimea. It’s the robbery of a city.”
He admitted that many are worried about a major upstream dam, located in the city of Nova Kakhovka.
Read more:
Iranian Revolutionary Guard ‘on the ground’ aiding Russia in Crimea
Putin’s martial law call helps him look strong at home but the charade is crumbling
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused the other of plotting to destroy it. Our interviewee told us the destruction of the dam is unlikely to help the Russians.
“The water will go to the south where Russian troops are located. It could happen but it means they’ll be flooding themselves… But they have those moods, preferring to flood their own people than surrender.”
The next few days and weeks will be difficult, says Vlad. For now, the city’s liberation will not be won easily.
“It’s terrifying, terrifying.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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