Russia has fully withdrawn its forces from the west bank of the Dnieper River, including the strategic city of Kherson, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
As Russian troops left, Ukrainian soldiers advanced and were greeted by jubilant civilians, according to reports and video footage from various Western media outlets including Reuters, AP, Germany’s DWNews, and the British Broadcasting Corp.
The defense ministry denied claims by Ukraine that Russian forces had abandoned significant amounts of equipment and asserted that departing Russian troops hadn’t suffered casualties, despite having come under fire from U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the withdrawal on Nov. 9 following assessments by Gen. Sergey Surovikin, commander of Moscow’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine.
As Russian troops and equipment were being withdrawn from the area, Ukrainian forces began entering Kherson city on Nov. 11, according to the media reports.
Earlier statements released by military officials in Kyiv had expressed caution.
“Offensive actions in the specified direction continue,“ Ukraine’s general staff stated on Nov. 9. ”Due to the safety of the operation, the official announcement of the results will be made later.”
In a televised address delivered the previous evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had already retaken 41 settlements north of Kherson.
On Nov. 11, Kyiv announced that Ukrainian forces had moved into the village of Blahodatne, located about 12 miles north of Kherson city.
Moscow: ‘No Change’ to Territorial Status
As Russian forces withdrew from positions on the northern bank of the Dnieper River, the Kremlin stressed that the move didn’t reflect any change to the territorial status of the Kherson region, of which Kherson city is the capital.“It [Kherson] is a subject of the Russian Federation; it is legally fixed and defined,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “There are no changes, and there can be no changes.”
On Sept. 30, the Kherson region—along with the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia—was incorporated into the Russian Federation after contentious referendums were held in all four territories.
Kyiv and its Western allies have refused to acknowledge the annexations by Russia, while Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pledged to recover all four regions by force.
Military officials in Kyiv have also vowed to retake the Black Sea region of Crimea, which was similarly annexed by Russia in 2014 following a referendum.
Of the four regions annexed in September, Kherson is considered the most strategically vital, as it commands the only land route into Crimea, along with the mouth of the Dnieper.
Most of Kherson, including the regional capital, was captured by Russian forces in the first weeks of the conflict, which began on Feb. 24.
Withdrawal ‘Correct Decision’
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee, has described the withdrawal across the Dnieper as the “correct decision” in light of realities on the ground.“We will definitely come back to Kherson,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency on Nov. 11.
“Nobody is going to give up Kherson once and for all,” Slutsky said. “Russia does not leave anyone behind.”
Speaking to Russia’s top military brass on Nov. 9, Surovikin justified the withdrawal decision, which he said was aimed at preserving the lives—and combat capabilities—of Russian military personnel.
According to Surovikin, the pullout will also allow Russian troops now deployed in Kherson to be relocated to other critical areas along the roughly 680-mile-long frontline.
In a Nov. 10 interview, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov speculated that Russia might redeploy some of its forces from Kherson to the neighboring region of Zaporizhzhia.
Russian forces currently control broad swathes of Zaporizhzhia, along with most of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, which together comprise the Russian-speaking Donbas region.
Reznikov also predicted that the onset of winter would likely lead to a temporary lull in ground combat.
“The winter will slow down every activity on the battlefield for all sides,” he said.
He went on to assert that Ukrainian forces would emerge stronger following the winter hiatus after being reinforced by fresh troops, who, he claimed, are currently being trained in the UK.
“We will use this time with a maximum result for our armed forces—for regrouping, for refreshing, and for rotation, and we will prepare them well,” Reznikov said.
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