The Ukrainian army announced this Friday that it had entered Kherson (south) after the withdrawal of Russian forces, a new scathing setback for Moscow after almost nine months of military campaign in Ukraine.
“Kherson is returning to Ukrainian control, units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are entering the city,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Facebook, calling on Russian soldiers remaining there to “surrender immediately.”
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, hailed “an important victory” for Kyiv, more than eight months after the beginning of the Russian invasion of the country. The city of Kherson had been occupied since mid-March by the Kremlin army.
Redeployment of Russian troops
This withdrawal is the third largest since the start of the invasion on February 24, Russia having surrendered in the spring to take Kyiv, before being defeated in the northeast in September, abandoning almost the entire region from Kharkov.
Dmytro Kouleba posted on his account a video that shows, according to him, residents of the Bilozerka town, a few kilometers from the city of Kherson, in the process of tearing down a giant banner proclaiming “Russia is here forever.”
The Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, for its part, broadcast on Telegram photos of civilians waving Ukrainian flags in Kherson.
Earlier this Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry for its part announced that it had completed at 5 am from Moscow “the redeployment” of its units from the right (western) bank of the Dnieper River, where Kherson is located, to the left. . , ensuring that it has not suffered any loss or abandoned military equipment.
The area remains “a subject of the Russian Federation”
This withdrawal is quite a snub, since Vladimir Putin affirmed at the end of September, during a ceremony with great pomp in the Kremlin, the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including Kherson.
The Russian president had warned that he would defend “by all means” what he considers to be Russian territories, wielding the threat of resorting to nuclear weapons.
But in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive launched at the end of the summer, the Russian army announced on Wednesday that it was going to leave the northern part of the Kherson region, to consolidate its positions on the other side of the Dnieper, a natural barrier pass.
Despite this setback, the area remains “an issue of the Russian Federation,” however, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov estimated on Friday.
“There can be no changes,” he added in the first comment of the Russian presidency on this withdrawal.
Dmitry Peskov added that the Kremlin has “no regrets” about its September annexation ceremony.
Destroyed Antonivsky Bridge
The decision to withdraw from part of southern Ukraine is all the more remarkable given that Vladimir Putin had ordered on September 21 the mobilization of some 300,000 reservists precisely to consolidate the Russian lines in difficulty.
The state-run Ria Novosti news agency broadcast nightly footage of Russian military vehicles leaving Kherson, indicating they were crossing the Antonivsky Bridge that spans the Dnieper River.
Several Russian correspondents then indicated, with supporting images, that part of the viaduct had been destroyed.
Ukraine struck for weeks at this bridge, the main one in the city of Kherson, without destroying it, to make it difficult to cross, thus cutting Russian supply lines and forcing Moscow to decide to withdraw.
Ukraine had claimed a dozen towns taken in the region on Thursday, but its leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky at the head, had been very cautious for the last two days about the Russian withdrawal for fear of a feint.
New Russian attacks
Russia has also continued to hold strikes across Ukraine, where some of the energy infrastructure has been destroyed in recent weeks, leading to power outages across much of the country, including the capital kyiv.
An attack targeted again, in the night from Thursday to Friday, Mykolaiv, a city in southern Ukraine about a hundred kilometers from Kherson.
An immeuble d’habitation of cinq étages already entièrement detruit, faisant au moins sept morts, according to the chef de l’administration régionale, Vitaliï Kim, who said on Telegram “a cynical response from the terrorist State to us succès sur front “.
Fighting also continues on the eastern front, particularly in Bakhmout, a city that Moscow has been trying to conquer since the summer and the main battlefield where the Russian army, supported by men from the Wagner paramilitary group, remains at the front. offensive.
Source: BFM TV
