Russia has turned occupied Nova Kakhovka into landfill, with machine guns on rooftops - mayor

The mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, told Radio Svoboda's Novyny Pryazovia project.

"It is constantly loud in the city, there is constant shelling. Due to this, the vast majority of residents try not to be on the streets unless it is absolutely necessary. As for the invaders' actions, according to the information I have, and I get it almost every day, only privates and sergeants are left on the front line. Officers have retreated to the rear," Kovalenko said.

According to him, residents of Nova Kakhovka have no access to certain streets at all, and the invaders shoot at those who violate this ban without warning: "This is a park area, everything is mined, everything is in concrete structures, everything is overgrown with weeds. They turned the city into a dump. And they put mortars or machine guns on the second floors and on the roofs of residential buildings."

Some villages have become deserted

Kovalenko said that a number of settlements in the left-bank Kherson region have become depopulated due to the war: "Korsunka is empty, almost no one has returned there after the flooding."

People have also left villages in the Oleshky community. The line of demarcation between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian army is currently being drawn there. The settlements located in close proximity to the Dnipro River are the most affected.

"This is the village of Pidstepne, Krynky, Nechaieve. I don't know how many people actually remain in Pishchanivka today. There is no one to contact, there are no people," said Tetiana Hasanenko, head of the Oleshky military administration.

• On October 11, in the temporarily occupied Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region, partisans set fire to a Lenin monument, which the Russians installed in April last year.