Governor of Kherson region calls on Kyiv to deploy additional troops amid growing threat of Russian attack
In an interview with the Ukrainian news outlet LB.ua, the head of the Kherson Region, Yuri Gusev, said that he had appealed to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to increase the number of military personnel in the region amid reports that Russia can conduct a military operation against Ukraine from the annexed Crimea.
According to Gusev, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry pledged to allocate necessary infrastructure to accommodate additional units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the region.
Gusev said that joint exercises with the Estonian military will be held in the autumn. However, the exact date is unknown and it will be determined taking in account forthcoming Russian military exercises Kavkaz - 2020.
During the joint exercises, Ukrainian and Estonian military will practice protecting key facilities in the Kherson region
Earlier, former commander of the U.S. Armed Forces in Europe Ben Hodges said that in the autumn, under the disguise of Kavkaz – 2020 exercises, Russia may try to capture the dam in the Kherson region to unblock the water supply from the Dnieper River to the annexed Crimea.
After that, the commander of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Serhiy Nayev said that there is indeed a certain number of Russian troops along the administrative border with the annexed Crimea, but, at present, there is no threat of an attack.