The withdrawal of Kremlin troops from Kherson came just weeks after Putin moved to annex the strategic city and was the third major blow to Russia’s war effort since the invasion began. Some of the most prominent war hawks have defended what they describe as a strategic withdrawal, while others have sharply criticized the decision. Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, dubbed “Putin’s mastermind,” accused Putin of failing in his obligation to defend Russian cities and drew a parallel with a story about a king who was killed for failing his people. Pro-Kremlin TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, dubbed “The Voice of Putin”, made an angry rant against the withdrawal from Kherson. And pro-Russian military analyst and blogger Boris Rozhin called the retreat a “murder of Russian hopes,” according to translations from the Kyiv Post. “This betrayal has been etched in my heart for years,” Rosine said. But others in Putin’s orbit are advocating a retreat. Russian General Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, said the withdrawal would “save the lives of our soldiers and the combat capability of our units. Keeping them on the right (west) bank is futile. Some of them can be used on other fronts,” according to Reuters. Chechen leader and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov, who had beaten Russian troops into retreat in September, said withdrawing from Kherson was a “difficult but right choice” between “meaningless sacrifices for the sake of strong statements and saving invaluable lives of soldiers”. according to the Kyiv Post. Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said backing down was the right decision, for now. “We will definitely return to Kherson, we will definitely win in the near future,” Slutsky said, according to the state-run Tass news agency. Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russian state broadcaster RT, said keeping Kremlin troops intact is more important than controlling Kherson. “I know for sure that this decision was not easy for anyone. Not to those who received it, not to us, who understood that it would be like this, and still prayed that it would not be like this,” said Simonian. In an assessment on Saturday, the Institute for the Study of War said the Kherson retreat had fueled an “ideological rift” between Putin and the country’s hard-line hawks. “Putin is struggling to appease parts of his highly ideological pro-war constituency because of his military’s inability to achieve his maximalist goals of toppling the Ukrainian government and seizing all of Ukraine,” the institute wrote. Ukrainians in Kherson were euphoric at the retreat, reveling in their liberation after Russia captured the city some eight months ago. Kherson is an industrial city strategically located near the mouth of the Black Sea, on the Dnieper River, and as a gateway and water supply to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. “Today is a historic day,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech last week. NASA Says Moon Rocket Will Launch As Scheduled Despite Minor Impact From Hurricane Nicole How The Cyber Agenda Will Change If GOP Takes Over Congress Zelensky vowed to continue pushing Russian troops out of the country in his late-night speech on Saturday. “We will see many more such greetings,” Zelensky said. “In those cities and villages that are still under occupation. We don’t forget anyone, we won’t leave anyone.” Kherson is now struggling to deal with the consequences of Russia’s long occupation, facing shortages of electricity and running water and shortages of food and medical supplies as the country as a whole deals with Russian attacks on its energy grid.
