<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The commander of Russian forces in Ukraine says the situation in the southern city of Kherson is "difficult" and residents are to be evacuated.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">General Sergei Surovikin said Ukrainian troops using Himars rockets were hitting the city's infrastructure and housing. He spoke on Russian state TV.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population" of Kherson, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His rare admission of big problems was echoed by a top local official.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian-installed regional official Kirill Stremousov warned Kherson residents that "in the very near future" Ukrainian troops would launch an assault on the city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Please take my words seriously - I'm talking about evacuating as quickly as possible," he said on the Telegram messaging service. He added that people on the River Dnieper's west bank (called Dnipro in Ukraine) were most at risk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This was confirmed by the region's Governor Vladimir Saldo, who was also appointed by Russia, in a video message.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kherson was the first big city to fall to the Russians, back in February.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrainian forces have been steadily retaking nearby territory for the past few weeks. They have pushed as far as 30km (19 miles) south along the Dnieper, threatening to trap Russian troops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As a whole the situation in the special military operation zone can be described as tense," Gen Surovikin said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kherson is the only Ukrainian regional capital to have been captured by the Russians in their invasion. The Kremlin now claims Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions to be part of Russia - a claim rejected internationally.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Infrastructure damage</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Gen Surovikin, who has a reputation for harsh methods, said Ukraine's volley of rockets had damaged Kherson's Antonivsky Bridge and the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, blocking traffic along those key arteries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That had created supply problems for essential services, namely food deliveries, water and electricity, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The BBC has been unable to verify the hardship in Kherson described by the general.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also said the Ukrainians were launching constant attacks across a wide front - in the areas of Kupiansk and Lyman in the east and, in the south, on the Mykolaiv-Krivyi Rih front.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gen Surovikin is the new commander of Russia's war in Ukraine - what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is nicknamed General Armageddon and is a veteran of Russia's wars. In Syria he oversaw Russian bombing raids that killed many civilians. He has also commanded troops accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gen Surovikin was speaking on a day of further Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, many of them targeting Ukraine's electricity supply. Parts of Kyiv now have no power or running water.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 30% of his country's power stations had been destroyed in the past eight days. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>