In footage shown on state television on Wednesday, Shoigu accepted an offer from Sergei Surovykin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, to retreat from the city to the left bank of the Dnipro River. Surovikin said the withdrawal would take place “as soon as possible” and that Russian troops would set up defensive positions in the remaining parts of the Kherson region they control southeast of the city. The decision to retreat marks a decisive moment in a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began on August 29, with its forces pushing back Russian artillery with superior manpower and supplies of advanced weapons supplied by the West. It is one of the biggest blows to Putin’s attempt to subdue Ukraine. Kherson was the first and only provincial capital to fall to Russian occupation in the first weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion that began on 24 February. The mainly agricultural region of Kherson is important to Russia because it connects Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to the mainland. It also controls most of Crimea’s water supplies through a canal. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, said the Russian military was “being hit by Kherson”. “Dear residents of Chersona. We’re coming back. You’re coming back. Welcome back home,” he added, warning, however, that “the fighting on the right bank will continue for some time.”

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But Mykhailo Podolyak, another adviser to the Ukrainian government, urged caution, telling the Financial Times that “it is too early to talk about the handover of Kherson today.” “The statement of the Russian administration may also mean the adoption of a political decision and it may be a trap – it may turn out to cloud our eyes before we get dragged into civil battles,” he added. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said Russia was waiting until after the midterm elections to withdraw from Kherson. “I found it interesting that they waited until after the election to make this judgment,” he said. Biden also said it was unclear whether Ukraine might be willing to “compromise” with Russia after leaving the city, when both sides had a chance to “calibrate their positions over the winter.” However, he insisted it was up to Kyiv when and if talks would begin. The US president also dismissed concerns that funding for Ukraine would be at risk if Republicans gained control of Congress. Biden said he would be surprised if House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy “even has the majority . . . colleagues who say they are not going to fund Ukraine’s legitimate defense needs.” In the first days of the invasion of Moscow in February, Russian troops failed to capture Kyiv, the capital. In September, Ukrainian troops forced the Kremlin to abandon several military strongholds near Kharkiv in the east, a breakthrough that cost Russia significant losses in men and material. Putin then called for the mobilization of reserves to reinforce the 1,100 km front line and threatened to use nuclear weapons. But Russia does not have full control of four Ukrainian regions, including Kherson, which Putin annexed in a pompous Kremlin ceremony in September. Surovikin told Shoigu on Wednesday that the decision to withdraw was “difficult” but justified it by saying that Russia “will preserve the lives of our troops and the combat readiness of our units.” Recommended He argued that Russia was backing down in the face of a perceived threat from Ukraine flooding the region by releasing water from nearby reservoirs or firing a massive hydroelectric dam at Nova Kakhovka, which remains under Russian control. Ukraine has accused Russia of planning to blow up the dam and blames Kyiv for the resulting damage. Surovikin claimed that retreating from Kherson would also allow Russia to free up forces to launch attacks in other areas. Russian occupation officials had urged civilians to leave the area in recent weeks and moved their headquarters from the city of Kherson to Skadovsk, a town deeper in Russian-controlled territory. Surovikin said 115,000 people had been evacuated to Russian-held territory on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Shortly before the withdrawal was announced, the Russian occupation administration said that Kirill Stremousov, a former anti-vaccine activist who had been appointed deputy governor of the region, had died in a car accident, without giving further details. Commenting on the withdrawal from a city Moscow had acquired early in the war, Ben Wallace, the UK’s defense secretary, warned the West and Ukraine not to “underestimate the Russian military”. “It is a perfectly logical military decision to withdraw behind the Dnipro River,” he said. “But essentially Russia has now lost the only goal it achieved. Basically it’s Russia 0 and Ukraine 1 so far.” With additional reporting by John-Paul Rathbone in London and James Politi in Washington