Russian troops are preparing for the “heaviest battles” in the strategic southern region of the Kherson region, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, said on Tuesday evening, quoted by Reuters.

In recent weeks, Russian forces in the region have been pushed back even further and risk being blocked on the west bank of the Dnipro River, where the capital of Kherson region has been in Russian hands since the first days of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian-appointed authorities are evacuating residents on the east bank, but Oleksiy Arestovich said there were no signs that Russian troops were preparing to leave the city.

“Everything is clear with Kherson. The Russians are replenishing supplies, strengthening their troops there,” Arestovichi said in a video published online.

“This means that no one is preparing for retirement. On the contrary, the most difficult battle will be for Kherson,” he added.

Of the four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared annexed in September, Kherson is perhaps the most strategically important.

It controls both the only land route to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnieper, a huge river that cuts Ukraine in half.

Yurii Sobolevskyi, a deputy of the expelled pro-Ukrainian regional council in Kherson, said that the Russian-installed authorities are increasing the pressure on Kherson residents to leave.

“Checking and filtering procedures are being stepped up, as well as searches of cars and homes,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

A Reuters reporter in an isolated village near part of the Kherson front line said residents hoped Russian troops would withdraw soon.

“You go to bed at night and you don’t know if you’ll wake up again,” said 39-year-old Mykola Nizinets, referring to the Russian bombings.

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