Ukrainian intelligence: Russian troops move proxies from Kherson closer to Crimea

Over the past few weeks, Russian-installed proxies and collaborators in Kherson have been resettled to hotels on Arabat Spit, between lake Syvash and the Azov Sea, the Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate reported on Nov. 3.

There, the recreation centers' owners are forced to host them, while the Russian military is searching for even more vacant premises, according to Ukraine's intelligence.

Russian troops also continue to forcibly relocate civilians from the right bank of the Dnipro River; they are displacing Ukrainian children from Kherson boarding schools to Crimea, particularly to one of the psychiatric hospitals in Simferopol, the Defense Ministry wrote.

The Russian occupation forces stepped up the deportation of local residents from Kherson Oblast on Nov. 1 amid Ukraine's counter-offensive. Russia ordered up to 70,000 residents within a 15-kilometer zone east of the Dnipro River to be displaced deeper into the region.

On Oct. 24, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's intelligence chief, told Ukrainska Pravda that Russian troops were creating the illusion that they were leaving Kherson; instead, they were bringing new military units there to prepare for defense.