There were signs late Thursday that Ukrainian forces were moving closer to the city of Kherson, a port at the mouth of the Dnipro River, a Ukrainian military analyst and media commentator said. It would take at least a week for Russia to withdraw from the city of Kherson, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Russia still had 40,000 troops in the area and intelligence indicated that its forces remained in and around the city, Reznikov said. Russia announced on Wednesday that it would withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro that includes Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow has seized since invading Ukraine in February. A withdrawal would be the third time the smaller Ukrainian army has pushed back the Russians, who were blocked in the north in March from taking the capital Kyiv. Then, in September, Ukrainian troops drove Russian occupation forces out of the northeastern region of Kharkiv. Kherson province is one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed to have annexed and that most countries have condemned as illegal. The city of Kherson was within range of Ukrainian artillery and the nearest Ukrainian reconnaissance patrols were less than 18 kilometers from the city, Ukrainian military analyst Yury Butusov said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who was seen in Kyiv on Thursday, told Reuters that it would take at least a week for Russian forces to withdraw from the city of Kherson. (Murad Sezer/Reuters) “Ukrainian forces are trying to break through Kherson on the shoulders of the retreating enemy,” he said. “In the area of the river crossings, where the Russian troops are concentrated, firefights break out.” Reuters was unable to verify reports on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces liberated 41 settlements as they advanced south, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Thursday night.
Many minefields to be laid
Pioneers and pyrotechnicians were going to areas retaken by Russian forces to rid them of thousands of unexploded mines and munitions left behind, he said. About 170,000 square kilometers remained for demining, Zelensky said, including in places where fighting was still taking place and “where the enemy will add mines before withdrawing, as is happening now with Kherson.” A woman pushes a bicycle in front of a house damaged by shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Andry Andriyenko/The Associated Press) The Ukrainian-appointed governor of the region, Yaroslav Yanusevych, told Telegram that Russian troops “removed public equipment, destroyed power lines and wanted to leave a trap behind them.” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said Russia wanted to turn Kherson into a “city of death,” mining everything from apartments to sewers and planning to bombard the city from across the river. Russia denies it deliberately targeted civilians, although the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and pulverized Ukrainian towns and cities. “There is absolutely no evidence that a trap is being laid in Kherson,” said Volodymyr Molchanov, a commentator from Kherson, according to Ukraine’s national website Espreso TV. “The Russian troops started yesterday [Wednesday] In his attempt to cross the Dnipro, the enemy is suffering huge losses.”
“Turning point”, but not the end
A withdrawal in Kherson would free forces from both sides to fight elsewhere, military analysts said, and there was no sign that Moscow was done with what it calls “a special military operation” against its pro-Western neighbor. “It’s certainly a turning point, but it doesn’t mean that Russia has lost or that Ukraine has won,” said Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Russia was still capable of another attack or counter-attacks, he said. “It’s too early to write them off.” WATCHES | Russia says it is withdrawing from the Kherson region, but many Ukrainians are skeptical:
Ukraine retakes Kherson region as Russia retreats
Ukraine’s president says the country has recaptured 41 settlements in the Kherson region amid a Russian withdrawal. But it is not clear how complete or quick that withdrawal will be, as sounds of explosions can be heard in the city of Kherson itself. A small group of Ukrainian soldiers were seen on Ukrainian state television greeting jubilant residents in the center of the village of Snihurivka, about 55 kilometers north of the city of Kherson, with a Ukrainian flag flying over the square behind them. Reuters has verified the location of the video. A few kilometers away, in a devastated front-line village reached by Reuters in an area already held by Ukrainian forces, the guns had fallen silent for what residents said was the first quiet night since the war began. “We hope the silence means the Russians are leaving,” said Nadiia Nizarenko, 85. The Russians could be setting up a trap, said Nizarenko’s daughter Svitlana Liskenyuk, 63.
