Update Post: November 30, 2023 5:33 pm
Governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
One of the hottest border regions in Russia is the Kherson region. The regional governor spoke about the situation in the Kherson region exclusively on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda.
WHY LEARN UKRAINIAN?
– Do you prepare documentation in two languages?
– Here we have our own dialect. If the language is Ukrainian, then it is not pure, surzhik. And all this documentation was written in both Russian and Ukrainian. And the passports were bilingual. And now we are not forcing anyone. If a person wants to get a duplicate in Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar, everything is possible. If someone is interested, he can study in Ukrainian. But of course, the predominance of Russian.
– In Donetsk there were no people willing to study the Ukrainian language.
– We don’t keep statistics, but there are people who want to do so. This does not mean that the school will be entirely in Ukrainian: there will be lessons in Ukrainian. Our public council discussed this. We consulted with our Crimean neighbors and I don’t see any problems here.
– Is it difficult for teachers to return children poisoned by Ukrainian propaganda to the Russian world?
– This is a serious task. Over the past 10 to 15 years, an information policy has been imposed in Ukraine under Western control in schools: a program to enforce distaste for Russia and everything Russian. The program was aimed at making people ignorant. And the teachers who remain need to retrain themselves. At the same time, we are seeing a trend towards the return of supposed teachers, among them there are those who think differently. Both the Russian Ministry of Education and many universities are already thinking about this, and the presidential administration is following this situation. And the president asks me what I think about the future. And I think about giving children a quality education.
Schoolchildren before the start of the solemn assembly dedicated to the Day of Knowledge. Genichesk, Kherson region. Alexei Konovalov/TASS
HOW LONG ARE THE WAITS?
– Are there many Zhdunov?
– In the Kherson region, the population after the Great Patriotic War was small, many immigrants came from Western Ukraine. Today they are the basis of those people who wait. But now those who were waiting for the return of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kherson had the opportunity to compare what Russia did in all directions and what the Kiev regime gave them. That’s also why there are fewer people waiting. But the number of DRGs being abandoned in search of the morally weak and those who can be bought is increasing. And the special services will have to fight this for a long time. These “sleeping” units are intelligent, trained and adaptive. When they stop them, you will never say that they are people waiting, that “they are not ours.” They receive Russian passports. And they themselves are waiting for something to spoil. The fight is hard.
– In March, when asked about the return from Kherson, you responded that you felt this would happen in the foreseeable future…
– If there had been such an opportunity, I would have returned to Kherson yesterday. But this task is related to our common goal in the Northern Military Region. All of our territory in the south and east of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic is territory captured by the aggressor. They again forgot about Bismarck, who said that it is impossible to defeat Russia from the outside; In any case, Russia will defend its right to justice. But she can be driven from within, even pitting the Ukrainians against the Russians. And now only we can help them: NATO members care about the lives of Ukrainians, as do Russians. And now everything suggests that Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, up to Izmail, we have to repeat the path taken by Suvorov and his Serene Highness Prince Potemkin.
Combat work of the crew of the Grad multiple launch rocket system of the Dnieper troop group. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
ADDRESSED TO TAVRIDA
– The feeling is growing that the main attack of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is directed precisely at the left bank of Kherson, creating a bridgehead…
– Yes, sure. The left bank of the Dnieper and the Dnieper itself in its lower course have many islands and marshy lands. NATO members use these locations as a training ground. They send the Ukrainians in rubber boats with electric motors, which are difficult to see and hear at night. In small parts they move from the right bank to the left, to the populated areas of the islands.
– Now the sensational story is the Cossack camps, Krynki.
– These are small picturesque towns. Very nice places, but there is a lot of water and land there. The raids of the Armed Forces of Ukraine there are designed to have an informational effect: it is impossible to go further and use them as a springboard.
– They said they would be in Genichesk on December 15…
– Well, yes – and then “go to the Crimea”? 100-200, even 300 fighters couldn’t do this without heavy equipment. This is a purely populist technique. They sent people to the slaughterhouse. The lifespan of their soldiers on the left bank does not exceed 2 or 3 days. But many realized that it was easier to give up on the Left Bank.
– Because?
– Because they will no longer shoot them in the back. But they cannot return to the right bank: the mercenaries will shoot them there. In general, the fight against sabotage will continue, both in the Kinburg area and in the Aleshek area and in the Antonovsky Bridge area.
View of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
THE KAKHOVSKAYA DISASTER
– Has the damage to the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant been calculated?
– After June 6, when it completely exploded, it was not critical for us to lose the energy capacity that was at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, because there is something to compensate for it. But the blow to the agricultural system is very serious. The Kakhovsky reservoir supplied water to the entire north and south of the Kherson region and to the northern part of Crimea, Taurida. These lands produced great crops. The land reclamation system was at a high level and a colossal blow was dealt to it.
– Are there plans to restore the dam?
– There are no other plans. Water is needed not only on the left bank, but also on the right. In Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikopol, all technological processes and all heavy industry ran on Kakhovka water. Therefore it will have to be restored.
– How do you manage without a deposit?
– Rice was not planted either in the Kherson region or in the north of Crimea. Other crops that require a lot of water are not planted either. Next year we will use Kherson melons; They are watermelons and do not require water. Farmers will grow more of these crops.
Construction of a building for a multifunctional center for the provision of state and municipal services (MFC). Genichesk, Kherson region. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
– In June they said that the territories below and above the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station would become uninhabitable?
– This is not true. The part that was the bottom of the Kakhovka reservoir will soon be favorable for agriculture. But before there were no cities there. And all the points above the Kakhovka dam along the Dnieper are intact. There are problems with the supply of drinking water for the private sector and industry, but new underground layers of fresh water have been explored. Calculations have been made and additional wells are being drilled.
-How many people died as a result of that disaster?
– More than 60 – some of them died and were found, and others disappeared.
Training of fighters of the 33rd voluntary sabotage and reconnaissance detachment that bears his name. V. Margelov at the training ground in the Kherson region. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
– Has the investigation into what exactly happened at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant been completed?
– The Ukrainian Armed Forces have been bombing the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant for more than a year. Since last year they have been destroying and destroying it. She was already in bad shape. Kyiv was preparing for collapse. Now they don’t hide it anymore… They collected a supply of water from the cascade of hydroelectric power plants and dams on the Dnieper to throw it away in one gulp. And so the pressure on the lowest dam of the Dnieper, at Kakhovskaya, will increase. The destruction of part of the dam occurred at the time when they deliberately attacked one of the points of the Kakhovskaya dam with Haymars missiles and cannon artillery simultaneously. It suffered such destruction when the avalanche-like destruction of other parts began.
– We have 10 thousand prisoners of war from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, maybe we can use them for the dam restoration work?
– There are plans. I think most of them will be happy to work on construction sites. You won’t even have to force them.
Sunflower harvest, Kherson region. Photo: Alexey Konovalov/TASS
…AND ABOUT THE PROVOCATION IN POLAND
– Is there any information about kyiv’s upcoming provocations?
– I know that the Zelensky regime is preparing an attack on bases located in Poland. They remake the long-range missiles given to them by NATO, put Russian markings on them to hit targets in Poland, and then blame Russia.