Ukraine’s Kherson region, including its capital of the same name, remains a part of Russia despite the withdrawal of Russian troops due to the counter-offensive by Kiev troops, the Kremlin (presidency) said on Friday.
The Kherson region “is a matter for the Russian Federation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
“There can be no change,” Peskov added in the Russian presidency’s first comment on the withdrawal of its troops from Kherson, which was completed today.
“At 5:00 Moscow time [2:00 em Lisboa]”The redeployment of Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnieper River has been completed,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, assuring the operation was without casualties.
The agency Ukrinform reported on Wednesday with the publication of a photo that “Ukrainian patriots” have raised the Ukrainian flag on Freedom Square, in the center of Kherson, according to the Spanish agency EFE.
Ukrainian authorities have urged caution amid fears that the withdrawal announcement could be a ploy to trap their troops.
Seven months after the invasion of Ukraine, on September 30, Russia annexed Kherson (south), along with the regions of Zaporijia (southeast) and those of Donetsk and Lugansk, making up Donbass (east).
The annexation of the four regions, which make up 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory, was considered illegal by Kiev and the international community at large. Peskov added that the Russian presidency “does not regret” the grand ceremony organized in September for the annexation.
Russia had already annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
Shortly after invading Ukraine on February 24, Kherson was occupied by the Russian army.
In fact, the city of Kherson was the only Ukrainian regional capital to be captured by Russian forces in nearly nine months of war.
In recent months, Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive in various parts of the country, causing Russian forces to withdraw from Kherson.
The counter-offensive was made possible by the supply of weapons to Kiev from its western allies, including Himars’ high-precision missile launch system.
With the new weapons, Ukrainian forces destroyed Russian supply lines, forcing the Moscow army to withdraw from Kherson.
Peskov declined to comment on the military commanders’ decision on Kherson, a further setback in the military campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
The announcement of Kherson’s withdrawal comes on top of that of the Kharkov (northeast) region, in September, and the failure to capture other regions further north, including the capital Kiev.
The withdrawal is even more important after Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists on September 21 to consolidate troubled Russian lines in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Putin had also warned that Moscow would “by all means” defend what it now considers its territory, including the ability to use nuclear weapons, as it poses a threat to Russia’s territorial integrity from a Russian point of view.
Source: DN
