Ukrainian authorities have warned that the announced withdrawal plan from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-held Crimean peninsula and neighboring regions, is not complete. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were faking the withdrawal from Kherson to draw the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.
People draped in Ukrainian flags walk towards Russian army trucks during a rally against Russian occupation in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, in a March 20, 2022 file photo. Olexandr Chornyi/AP
If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson – a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September – would pile on another setback to Russia’s early failed bid to capture the capital, Kyiv, and its chaotic and hasty retreat from administrative area around. Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, which never fell into Russian hands. Russian forces captured Kherson early in the invasion, which began on 24 February.
Kiev forces have zeroed in on the city, which had a pre-war population of 280,000, and cut supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops from large swaths of ground.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stressed on Wednesday that the effort to retake the city is not yet over, however, saying that as long as the Ukrainian flag does not fly over Kherson, there is “no point” in discussing a Russian retreat.
Recapturing Kherson could allow Ukraine to regain lost territory in the Zaporizhia region and other southern regions, including Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to increase domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.
Speaking sternly and with a steely face on Russian television, Moscow’s top military commander in Ukraine showed a blurry map as he told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be “futile ».
General Sergei Surovikin said 115,000 people had been moved because “their lives are constantly in danger” and suggested a military retreat “in the near future” across the Dnieper River from Kherson.
Shoigu agreed with Surovikin’s assessment and ordered him to “begin with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.”
But Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press: “So far, we don’t see any signs that Russia is completely leaving town, which means these statements may be misinformation.”
Yaroslav Yanusevych, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Kherson, urged residents “not to succumb to euphoria” just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces blew up five bridges to slow Kiev’s forces.
Military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that Russia’s announced retreat “could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive, force them to penetrate Russian defenses and in response to a strong hit from the sides”.
After a day of remarks by his aides about the announced withdrawal and a meeting he had with his senior military staff in Kyiv, Zelensky did not comment directly, saying in a video address overnight: “Our emotions must be contained — always during the war. I certainly will not feed the enemy all the details of our operations… When we have our result, everyone will see it.”
Russian-installed authorities had ordered all residents of Kherson to leave “immediately” at the end of October, ahead of an expected advance by counter-offensive Ukrainian troops to retake the occupied territory.
Last week, CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Holly Williams met one of the Ukrainian soldiers — a former crane operator who joined the army as the war began — who helped liberate village after village on the outskirts of the city of Kherson.
Ukrainian soldier on what he saw on the front line 02:23
The soldier Andriy Rogalski wanted to show Williams the small town of Vysokopillia. Like many other communities in the Kherson region, Russian forces occupied it for months, leaving many of its houses in ruins. Rogalski described to CBS News how Ukrainian forces had surrounded the city, overwhelming the Russians until the remaining troops fled in September.
On the main street of Vysokopillia, Williams and Rogalski encountered 74-year-old Nadia Sabsai as she headed home on her bicycle. She showed CBS News the basement of her apartment building, where she said eight families had taken refuge, their children trembling with fear, during the intense battle to liberate the city.
A map showing the oblasts or politically administered regions of Ukraine and their regional capitals. The Kherson region is located at the southern tip, just north of the Crimean peninsula. Getty/iStock
Russia’s brutal occupation of much of the Kherson region has left many towns like Vysokopilia reeling, and much ground remains to be reclaimed. More than half of Kherson lies east of the Dnieper River, and the orders given by Russia’s defense chief on Wednesday were for Russian forces to set up their new defense line on its east bank.
Surovikin, Putin’s relatively new commander-in-chief in Ukraine, whose brutal tactics in Syria’s civil war earned him the nickname “General of Armageddon,” told the defense minister in Moscow that the decision to withdraw Russian forces back to his shores Dnieper “wasn’t easy”. ,” but said it would “save the lives of our soldiers.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin applauds Colonel Sergei Surovykin during an awards ceremony for troops who fought in Syria at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 28, 2017. Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
In its latest assessment of the situation in Ukraine, published online earlier Wednesday, Britain’s Defense Intelligence Agency said damage to the only bridge linking the Russian-held Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland was caused by an explosion weeks ago that has not claimed Kyiv. He also did not deny that he provoked, combined with a recent Ukrainian attack on the Russian navy in the Black Sea “and the possible withdrawal from Kherson complicate the Russian government’s ability to paint a picture of military success.”
Latest defense intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 09 November 2022
Learn more about the UK Government’s response: https://t.co/FT7t3N6kyr
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