Moscow says Kherson pullout starts as Ukraine claims gains
Map showing of areas of retreat. Russian High Command has issued a general retreat to all surviving Russian forces at the Western bank of the Dnipro River. (Twitter: @Tendar)
by Dmitry Zaks with Daphne Rousseau in Kyiv
MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE — Moscow announced Thursday it had begun retreating from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson as Kyiv said it had recaptured a dozen villages in the strategic Black Sea region.
“The Russian troop units are manoeuvring to prepared position on the left bank of the Dnipro river in strict accordance with the approved plan,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Ukrainian officials have remained wary since Moscow first signalled late Wednesday that it was pulling forces from the west bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson, in what would be major Russian setback in a region Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed.
Ukrainian troops have for weeks been capturing villages en route to the main city in the eponymous region, while Kremlin-installed leaders in Kherson have been pulling out civilians in what Kyiv has called illegal deportations.
Ukrainian general Valeriy Zaluzhny said on social media that Ukraine’s forces had recaptured six settlements after fighting near the Petropavlivka-Novoraisk front.
Kyiv’s army had taken another six in the Pervomaiske-Kherson direction, capturing a total of more than 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) from the Russians, he added.
Late Wednesday, Russia’s most senior defence officials responsible for Ukraine announced in a televised meeting that they had taken the “difficult decision” to withdraw from Kherson and set up defensive lines further back.
In the nearby southern city of Mykolaiv, which Russian forces have pounded with artillery and missiles for months, there was little belief the Russians would do as they said.
“You cannot trust what they say. No one will give us anything back just like that,” Svitlana Kyrychenko, a 54-year-old store clerk, told AFP.
by Dmitry Zaks with Daphne Rousseau in Kyiv
MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE — Moscow announced Thursday it had begun retreating from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson as Kyiv said it had recaptured a dozen villages in the strategic Black Sea region.
“The Russian troop units are manoeuvring to prepared position on the left bank of the Dnipro river in strict accordance with the approved plan,” the Russian defence ministry said.
Ukrainian officials have remained wary since Moscow first signalled late Wednesday that it was pulling forces from the west bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson, in what would be major Russian setback in a region Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed.
Ukrainian troops have for weeks been capturing villages en route to the main city in the eponymous region, while Kremlin-installed leaders in Kherson have been pulling out civilians in what Kyiv has called illegal deportations.
Ukrainian general Valeriy Zaluzhny said on social media that Ukraine’s forces had recaptured six settlements after fighting near the Petropavlivka-Novoraisk front.
Kyiv’s army had taken another six in the Pervomaiske-Kherson direction, capturing a total of more than 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) from the Russians, he added.
Late Wednesday, Russia’s most senior defence officials responsible for Ukraine announced in a televised meeting that they had taken the “difficult decision” to withdraw from Kherson and set up defensive lines further back.
In the nearby southern city of Mykolaiv, which Russian forces have pounded with artillery and missiles for months, there was little belief the Russians would do as they said.
“You cannot trust what they say. No one will give us anything back just like that,” Svitlana Kyrychenko, a 54-year-old store clerk, told AFP.
‘Don’t Believe’
She said friends told her there were even more Russian troops in Kherson and that she believed that Moscow’s forces would not leave the city without a fight.
“I don’t believe that they will just give anything back,” she added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested Russia could be strategically feigning rather than experiencing a major setback.
Military officials in Kyiv reiterated that caution on Thursday.
“At this point, we can’t confirm or deny information about the retreat of Russian troops from Kherson,” said Oleksiy Gromov, from the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff.
Russia losing the Kherson region would return to Ukraine important access to the Sea of Azov and leave Putin with little to show from a campaign that has turned him into a pariah in Western eyes.
The retreat will put pressure on Russian control of the rest of the Kherson region, which forms a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
In the weeks leading up to the announcement from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Kremlin-installed officials said they were “evacuating” civilians and rendering the city a “fortress”.
As Ukrainian troops advance in the south, Russia’s commander in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, told Shoigu on Wednesday that around 115,000 people had been removed from the western bank of the Dnipro, which includes Kherson city.
Bakhmut Fight ‘Harder’
Kherson was one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia declared it had annexed in September, shortly after being forced to withdraw from swathes of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
In Moscow, Kremlin supporters rushed to justify the decision despite earlier setbacks in Ukraine spurring division and soul searching among Putin allies.
The head of the Russian state media group RT, Margarita Simonyan, said the retreat was necessary to not leave Russian troops exposed on the west bank of the Dnipro River and “open the way to Crimea”.
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov said the decision was “difficult but fair”.
Moscow’s announced withdrawal came as the United States estimated more than 100,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
Kyiv’s forces have likely suffered similar casualties, according to top US General Mark Milley, who shared the most precise figures released to date by Washington.
Russia has been pushing to capture the eastern Donbas city of Bakhmut, with the battered town famous for wine and salt mines coming under intensive fire for weeks.
“It has become harder these past three days. The Russians are pushing more and more. But our boys are holding their positions,” 26-year-old soldier Vitaliy told AFP in Bakhmut.
Around half of the 70,000 people living in the city have stayed despite the fighting, mostly in the east of the city, for the past four months.
— AFP
My friends who are RuZia Faves, and feed on an exclusive daily diet of RuZia and Tiongkok media on the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteFor the last 9 months they have been led to believe the RuZia was winning glorious victory after glorious victory over Ukraine. Even when Moscow "repositioned" troops away from Kyiv and Kharkiv, they have accepted the story that this was a prelude to more victories.
These days, they are suffering severe emotional damage....wakakaka
Wakakakaka…
DeleteWho is suffering severe emotional damage?
Early days, mfer!
Ooop… do continue with Ukrainian was winning glorious victory after glorious victory over the Russian ambient fart. U do need it.
“Moscow announced Thursday it had begun retreating from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson”
ReplyDeleteAs comparing with
"Russian High Command has issued a general retreat to all surviving Russian forces at the Western bank of the Dnipro River"
A western propaganda remodelling fart!
Kherson is a city covering 135.7 km2. It used to be geologically located at right (west) bank of the lower Dnieper River about 15 miles (25 km) from the river’s mouth.
Currently the city encompasses both east & west bank of the Dnieper River.
Thus, Russian's relocating to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River couldn't be considered as a retreat. It's a military strategical manoeuvre. The NATO assisted Ukrainian arm forces knows very well & hence the hesitation in any planned aggressive movement into the vacant territories!
Wakakakaka…
ReplyDeleteMilitary facts:
1) while retreating to the east Kherson bank of Dnieper river, the Russian destroyed all river crossing bridges, big & small, running along the city river.
Doing the works that the Ukrainian have been trying empteen times.
2)avoiding the inundation of the west bank when the hard-headed NATO commended Ukrainian decides to bomb the Kakhovka hydro-electric dam upstream of the Dnipro River.
The West & Ukrainian have been foaming in the mouth about Russian blowing up the vast Kakhovka dam to stop the Ukrainian advance. In fact it is the reverse psychological deploy.
3)topologically the west bank is at a flat & lower level than the east bank region. Thus, the early farming formation of the Kherson developments. Historically, before the building of the dam, the west bank always gets flood inundations.
4)the desperado Ukrainian under NATO commands have been targeting civilian structures such as the Crimean Kerch Strait Bridge, Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station & the NordStream natural gas pipelines!
No army ever gives up territory hard won with blood and materiel, including "planned withdrawals", unless the pain and potential pain far exceeds the advantages of keeping the territory.
ReplyDeleteTop it off, Kherson is RuZia land (according to the Puting RuZian annexation).
Puting is the first RuZian leader since the dark days of WWII to have to swallow the humiliation of ceding RuZian territory to a foreign army.
Slava Ukraina !
That's how a known nothing military bluff parading its lies!
DeleteIf one read back into many of the great wars on planet earth, there were tons & tons of military strategic manoeuvres by known generals in withdrawing from hard-earned territories in order to active aims of greater plan!
Granted - withdrawing from the west bank of the Kherson city is politically unsavoury for Putin, but it flies in a greater military moves in strengthening the hold of the east Kherson. The Dnieper river is a major obstacle that the NATO commanded Ukrainian forces would find VERY difficult to cross. Besides, some of the military units can be redeployed to the Donbass region to mount much stronger attacks against the attacking Ukrainian forces.
Only a demoNcratic myrmidon would term a voluntary withdrawal from PART of an occupied Kherson territory as what the western propagandas titled as an retaking of the whole of Kherson city!