Kremlin prepares manual to justify escape from Kherson - Meduza

Two such manuals are at the disposal of Meduza, the Riga-based Russian news website. 

One of the documents states that the Kherson direction is “the most difficult for the Russian army at the current stage of the special operation.” Propagandists are offered to explain such a situation by the fact that Ukraine “vitally needs to demonstrate the combat capability of its terrorist formations” in order to ask the West for new help. Civil society in the Russian Federation will try to push the thesis that the Russian army is supposedly rescuing civilians, therefore evacuating them and itself due to the danger of a massive attack on Kherson by a “huge group of nationalists.”

Another reason for a possible retreat from Kherson is indicated in the manual, that Ukraine and the NATO countries “threw all their forces” on this particular direction of the front — and this threatens “huge bloodshed.”

“Ukraine's Armed Forces of Ukraine are planning to stage a terrorist attack by destroying the Kakhovka HPP. Undermining the HPP may become a trap for our soldiers. In this case, populated areas with civilians will be flooded, our military will be encircled and will not even be able to take a fight, as they will simply be washed away,” the manual says. 

• The head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, Kyrylo Budanov, predicted the liberation of Kherson by the end of November.