Some inhabitants of Chersona started boarding minibuses and dozens of cars today to leave the city in southern Ukraine, hours before a 58-hour curfew came into effect there, after a series of Russian attacks and in the face of a widely expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured from the Russian army last November after eight months under Russian occupation, is regularly shelled from across the Dnieper River, where Russian forces control swaths of Kherson province.

Two villages in the Ukrainian-controlled part of this province were hit four times today by Russian guided bombs that destroyed a church and 20 homes, the regional administration said. According to the latter, one person was injured in the attacks.

Last Wednesday, 23 people were killed by Russian shelling in the province, local officials said.

The city is expected to experience an unusually long curfew today. Reuters reporters saw residents fleeing in their cars and minibuses, although others remained in the city.

“No one will lock people in their homes, people will be able, if they need, to go out and go to distances close to their homes to buy what they need,” said Oleksandr Tolokonikov, a spokesman for the Kherson regional military command.

“The curfew is imposed because law enforcement agencies have to conduct their activities in Kherson and therefore the city is closed to entry and exit,” he emphasized.

Ukraine is widely expected to launch a counterattack within the next few days or weeks. Russia holds territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, which it seized after launching a full-scale invasion in February last year.