Fears Russia leaving behind ‘city of death’

US announces deal with Sth Korea to send weapons to Ukraine

I would be surprised if the Russians had not set up something, some surprises for Ukraine.

Alexander Khara, Centre for Defence Strategies

Russia said it began withdrawing troops from a strategic Ukrainian city yesterday, creating a potential turning point in the grinding war, while a Ukrainian official warned Russian land mines could render Kherson a “city of death”.

With Ukrainian officials tightlipped with their assessments and spotty communications, it was difficult to know what was happening in the port city, where the residents who remained after tens of thousands fled were afraid to leave their homes.

A forced pullout from Kherson — the only provincial capital Moscow captured after invading Ukraine in February — would mark one of Russia’s worst war setbacks.

The plan to withdraw comes as the US announced it would buy 100,000 rounds of howitzer artillery from South Korean manufacturers to provide to Ukraine, in a deal the two governments have been working on for some time.

Ukrainian leaders have been pushing for more weapons and aid to take advantage of Russian forces leaving Kherson. And it relieves concerns within the US military who are worried that persistent transfers of the Pentagon’s howitzer ammunition to Ukraine are eating into their stockpiles.

Last week a US defence official said Ukraine was burning through as many as 7000 rounds of ammunition a day, while Russia was firing as much as 20,000 rounds daily.

The US also announced yesterday it would send US$400 million ($665 million) more in military aid.

According to the Pentagon, the aid package will contain large amounts of ammunition and, for the first time, four highly mobile Avenger air defence systems.

Ukrainian forces seem to be scoring more battlefield successes and President Volodymyr Zelenskkyy said yesterday the pace has increased so much that residents “are now checking almost every hour where our units have reached and where else our national flag was raised”.

The armed forces commander-inchief, General Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Kyiv’s forces have advanced 36.5km and retaken 41 villages and towns since October 1 in the Kherson region, which the Kremlin has illegally annexed.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russian troops laid mines throughout Kherson as they withdrew to turn it into a “city of death” and predicted they would shell it after relocating across the Dnieper River.

From these new positions, the Kremlin could try to escalate the war, which US assessments showed may already have killed or wounded tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Arkadiy Dovzhenko, who fled Kherson in June, said his grandparents still living there told him yesterday that “the Russians were bringing a lot of equipment into the town and also mining every inch of it.”

Zelenskyy said his forces were racing to remove land mines from 170,000sq m nationwide, and planned to do so in Kherson. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a troop withdrawal from Kherson on Thursday after his top general in Ukraine reported a loss of supply routes during Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive made a defence “futile.”

Yesterday, Ukrainian officials appeared to soften the skepticism they had expressed over whether the Russians were really on the run or trying to trap Ukraine’s soldiers.

“The enemy had no other choice but to resort to fleeing,” armed forces chief Zaluzhny said.

Still, he said the Ukrainian military could not confirm a Russian withdrawal.

Alexander Khara, of the Kyivbased think tank Centre for Defence Strategies, echoed those concerns, saying he remained fearful that Russian forces could destroy a dam upriver from Kherson and flood the city’s approaches.

The former Ukrainian diplomat also warned of traps and other possible dangers. “I would be surprised if the Russians had not set up something, some surprises for Ukraine,” Khara said.

Kherson remains without power, heating and internet service, gas stations in the city are closed, and there is no fuel, she said.

The city also has run out of medications for cancer and diabetes patients. Ukrainian news reports said the Russians blew up the local television centre, some of the cellphone towers and energy infrastructure.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just over a month ago celebrated the annexation of Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions and vowed to defend them by any means, has not commented on the withdrawal.

His allies rushed to defend the retreat as tough, but necessary.

However, Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov broke ranks and described the move as “Russia’s biggest geopolitical loss since the collapse of the Soviet Union” and warned that “political consequences of this huge loss will be really big”.