“It is about people who either were consciously working for the aggressor or were forced to do this. They are told that hostilities will soon begin there; that this territory will allegedly be shelled and bombed, therefore they are persuaded to leave and continue to work with the russians,” Andrii Cherniak, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, told to RBK-Ukraine.

According to the representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence, the russians are using the so-called ‘evacuation’ from the occupied territories in southern Ukraine as a cover-up to conduct counterintelligence and filtration operations, “First of all, they don’t want the population to be able to observe their preparations for battles, that is, these are certain counterintelligence measures. These are also filtering measures, since the pro-Ukrainian population is primarily deported. And thirdly, the russians are afraid of some partisan movement and internal resistance in these territories,” Andrii Cherniak added.

At the same time, the DIU representative said that the withdrawal of russian combat units neither from Zaporizhzhia nor from Kherson regions is not currently recorded. There are concentrated now approximately 152,000 personnel in the occupied territories of both regions and all their actions indicate that they are preparing for defence.