Zelenskyy: Russian occupation authorities shutter hospitals and intimidate doctors in Kherson Oblast

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – FRIDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2022, 21:35

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russian occupation authorities in Kherson Oblast are shuttering hospitals, looting and taking away hospital equipment, and forcing local doctors to move to Russia.

Source: President Zelenskyy’s video address

Quote from Zelenskyy: "The occupiers have thrown down a new challenge on the occupied territory. They are dismantling all local healthcare facilities. The occupiers have decided to shutter municipal hospitals and take away hospital equipment, ambulances, and anything else they can lay their hands onto… They put pressure on the remaining doctors to move to Russia.

This is happening, first and foremost, in Kherson Oblast. Russia is stripping away all civilisation, all basic necessities available in most civilised countries around the world in Kherson Oblast."

Details: Zelenskyy said that Russia is trying to turn Kherson Oblast into an "exclusion zone".

"The world must respond to this. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all representatives of our state are informing international organisations and partners about this new escalation carried out by the occupiers," Zelenskyy said.

He urged the residents of the territories temporarily occupied by Russian forces to help one another and stick together regardless of what the Russian occupation forces are doing.

"The Ukrainian flag will return. We will bring back normal life. But you need to survive this period when even the occupiers themselves are confirming that they cannot hold on to the territory of Ukraine. That is why they are trying to steal medical equipment and to hold medical personnel captive," Zelenskyy concluded.

Background:

• On 20 October, investigative journalists reported that Russian occupation forces were transferring their military equipment and personnel from the right bank of the River Dnipro to the left bank in Kherson Oblast following recent successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in liberating the oblast.
• On 19 October, Volodymyr Saldo, the Russian-appointed puppet governor of Kherson Oblast, announced that the so-called leadership of Kherson Oblast has decided to move their headquarters to the left bank of the River Dnipro due to the allegedly impending counteroffensive by Ukrainian Armed Forces.
• The Russian occupiers dismantled monuments to Russian generals Aleksandr Suvorov and Fedor Ushakov in Kherson and took them with them as they fled the city. They also stole a monument to Prince Grigory Potemkin and his remains from St Catherine's Cathedral in Kherson.
• Ukraine’s National Resistance Center has reported that the occupation administration of Kherson Oblast has already relocated to Dnipro’s left bank.
• At the same time, however, President Zelenskyy has stated that the Russian troops are not ready to leave Kherson, and their alleged preparation to retreat is an informational operation.

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