In temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region, remaining cars with Ukrainian license plates currently in high demand

Serhiy Danylov, deputy director of the Ukrainian Association of Middle East Studies, told a Ukrinform correspondent about this.

“Russian military personnel in locations near the Dnipro River in the Kherson region have been banned from wearing their uniforms at all, unless they are on duty somewhere in the forests. And everyone is switching to civilian cars,” Danylov says.

Therefore, he said, while the occupiers previously pressured people to change their license plates, cars with Ukrainian license plates that are still in use are now highly valued.

Also, as Danylov explained, after fairly accurate strikes began hitting the Arabat Spit—where representatives of the FSB, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the occupying soldiers were staying in virtually all the sanatoriums and bases—they began relocating en masse, particularly to Henichesk, and even moving into the apartments and homes of local residents.

“In this regard, the occupiers are expelling—or attempting to expel—displaced persons from the towns and villages of the ‘red zone’ along the occupied left bank of the Dnipro, who had moved away from the front lines and found refuge there. It has become very difficult for people to find housing, particularly for those who want to leave the temporarily occupied territories but need time to process the necessary documents and must remain in Henichesk for a certain period to complete bureaucratic procedures. As a result, leaving the occupied left bank of the Kherson region has become more difficult,” says Danylov.

Also, according to the expert, in the occupied part of the Kherson region, the occupying authorities have already fled the area 20–30 kilometers from the coast; there is no occupying administration in the settlements, and people are surviving as best they can. Danylov also added that he had been told about an increase in looting—both by Russian military personnel and by locals. In particular, looting is rampant in the seaside resort village of Zaliznyi Port—everything of value is being taken.

Furthermore, he said, even when electricity is restored to a settlement, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the mobile communication base station receives power. “They lack resources, can’t keep up with repairs, and have no one to do the repairs. When substations start ‘failing’ in a chain reaction, they don’t know what to do. And mobile operators are obviously not very interested in installing generators near the towers at their own expense,” says Danylov.

As reported by Ukrinform, in the fall of 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the right-bank part of the Kherson region, including the city of Kherson. The part of the region located on the left bank of the Dnipro River is temporarily occupied by Russian troops.

Photo: Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine