In a meeting on Wednesday broadcast live on Russian television, General Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, told Shoigu that it was impossible to keep the city’s supply lines open. However, there may be more than logistical difficulties at play. While Ukrainians fear the withdrawal is a trap, a source who worked in the Russian-backed administration of the occupied Kherson claimed the decision to withdraw was made more than a month ago. “I was informed of this decision on October 3,” the source, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera. “It was a political decision. There were [still] many troops there – I personally saw tanks being moved to the Dnieper [River] for an attack on Mykolayiv. But all were canceled after closed negotiations. It is strange. There must have been agreements at a very high level.” Those claims, which Al Jazeera could not independently verify, appear to be consistent with reports published by the exiled independent Russian news website Meduza in October, which said Moscow had made statements about resuming ceasefire talks with Ukraine . But those statements were disingenuous, Meduza said, as they were intended to allow the forces to regroup with newly drafted conscripts for an attack early next year, in February or March 2023. To achieve this, sources close to the Kremlin told Meduza that the army was ready to withdraw from at least part of the occupied Kherson territory for the sake of this agreement.
“Difficult but right choice”
Pro-Moscow observers mourned the loss of the first and only regional capital captured in the Russian invasion. Alexander Koch, a war correspondent for the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, who is embedded with Russian troops, grabbed Russian flags before Ukrainian soldiers could desecrate them. “This morning, having seen that the Russian flags had disappeared from the Kherson administrative buildings and having received many strong recommendations to cross to the left bank, we decided to take two more flags with us before the ship,” Kots wrote in Telegram. “So that those who will make fun of our state symbol do not take it.” “I will keep the symbol of the state until we come back to hang it [rightful] part,” he added. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, and Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Chechnya, both typically supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s campaign in Ukraine, respected the decision to withdraw. “The decision taken by Surovikin was not easy, but he acted like a man who is not afraid of responsibility,” Prigozhin said in comments to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. “He did it in an organized manner, without fear, taking all the decision-making upon himself. I want to emphasize that the operation of withdrawing troops is always extremely difficult, turning your back on the enemy and leaving positions. Kadyrov, who has often complained that the war is not being fought with fury, echoed Prigozhin’s comments on his popular Telegram channel. “Surovikin saved a thousand soldiers who were in real encirclement,” he wrote. “After weighing all the pros and cons, General Surovikin made the difficult but correct choice between senseless sacrifices for the sake of strong statements and saving the priceless lives of soldiers.” Kremlin sources reportedly said state media had been ordered to report that advanced Ukrainians were planning to blow up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station on the Dnieper River, flooding settlements and Russian positions, and claim the Ukrainian military would not hesitate to level the city in an upcoming fight. . However, it may be difficult to convince the pro-war voices that the “loss” of the city of Kherson is anything but a defeat. “As sad and disappointing as it is, unfortunately, the retreat from Kherson to the left bank of the Dnieper River has become a reality,” the popular Rybar Telegram channel told its more than million readers. “We don’t know how the federal channels will present it. Will they sweeten the bitter pill with soothing words about how “history will put everything in its place”, about the Great Patriotic War? a phrase about how “when the army ends the enemy ends” and other mantras? In the eyes of the population, this is a defeat. Yes, local. Does that make it easier? It is a loss of territories that the Russian Federation recognized as its own.” “For at least the next two days, we will have to read, listen and watch how the treason and treachery around Kherson will be justified and smoothed over, stating that nothing could be done,” the Telegram channel reportedly posted associated with Wagner, Gray Zone. . “They will say that the enemy, despite their losses, which number in the thousands, was ready to take Kherson anyway. Maybe something else will be said that this is because of their help from the West.”
