Zelensky celebrates ‘return’ of Kherson
Residents ‘overwhelmed with emotion’ as Russian rule in first major Ukrainian city seized by Moscow ends after eight months
Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last night as Russian troops beat a lightning retreat over the Dnipro river. The collapse of Moscow’s frontline in southern Ukraine has come after months of fierce fighting. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said Kherson is “ours” after his forces were met by scenes of jubilation by residents as they entered the regional capital. “We are returning Kherson,” Mr Zelensky said last night in his regular address to the nation.
UKRAINIAN soldiers were mobbed by crowds as they entered Kherson yesterday as the sound of gunfire and bombs was replaced by car horns and singing to celebrate the end of more than eight months of Russian occupation.
Soldiers were held aloft, hugged and pulled tight for selfies after Russian rule finally came to an end in the first major city to be captured by Moscow.
Russia’s retreat from the southern city marked the close of one of the most hard-fought battles of the war so far and a major defeat for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who two months ago announced the annexation of Kherson.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kherson was “ours” after his forces were met by scenes of jubilation as they entered the regional capital.
“We are returning Kherson,” he said yesterday in his nightly address to the nation. “The people of Kherson were waiting. They never gave up on Ukraine. Hope for Ukraine is always justified and Ukraine always returns its own.”
Locals tore down Russian propaganda billboards, including “Russia here forever” plastered across the region, and raised national flags as they waited for Ukrainian troops.
By the afternoon, images of the first of Kyiv’s soldiers inside the city itself were circulating on Ukrainian social media channels.
One video showed residents, many draped in the yellow and blue of their national flag, chanting “Slava do ZSU” – glory to the Ukrainian Armed Forces – as the first troops arrived.
One female soldier was held aloft by the adoring crowd, while a colleague was given kisses as he posed for selfies under the Ukrainian flag.
Elsewhere, children hugged soldiers wearing Ukrainian yellow tactical flashes as they marched into the city.
Alina Shapoval, a Kherson resident, was overjoyed at the news of the Russian retreat: “I am overwhelmed with emotions, I am infinitely happy. Soon I will be able to see everyone from whom I have been separated for a long time,” she said.
Another resident of the city, Viktoria, said she was suspicious of the sudden Russian withdrawal.
“I want to celebrate, but something tells me it is not over yet,” she said. “The Russians can’t be giving up so easily, not after everything that has happened.
“I am scared for the winter and worry the city will become a battleground. We will be in the firing line.”
The few residents that remained in Kherson during the lengthy occupation endured curfews, food shortages, partisan warfare and a brutal campaign to force them to become Russian citizens.
“Kherson returns to Ukrainian control. The retreat routes of the Russian
‘I want to celebrate, but something tells me it is not over yet. I am scared for the winter’
‘Soon I will be able to see everyone from whom I have been separated for a long time’
invaders are under the fire control of the Ukrainian army,” Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said in a statement.
Earlier, Russia’s ministry said it had destroyed the last road bridges over the Dnipro river, which bisects Ukraine, as its forces completed their withdrawal.
Alexander Kots, a reporter for Russia’s best-selling tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, filmed himself standing on the edge of the bombed-out Antonovskiy bridge yesterday morning.
“It looks like it has been blown up as Russian troops moved to the left bank,” he said. “There are no troops on the other side left.”
As Mr Kots was filming, an elderly man on a bicycle came up to the last surviving span of the bridge in disbelief, saying he lived on the other side and was going to cycle over it.
A video released by Russian state media showed the moment charges were detonated on the bridge, which connects Kherson on the west bank of Dnipro River, with nearby Oleshky.
The bridge had been damaged by Ukrainian strikes that are believed to have made it impossible for heavy vehicles to cross.
A railway bridge upstream was also destroyed as Russia’s forces made their hasty getaway, while satellite imagery appeared to show damage to the bridge over the Kakhovka dam.
Russian troops were filmed retreating across a pontoon bridge as they made their escape shortly before nightfall on Thursday evening.
Yesterday, a Russian military transport truck was pictured stranded on the destroyed pontoon after failing to escape the nearby explosion.
Mr Putin presided over a ceremony incorporating the Kherson region into Russia in September, in a move that appeared designed to reassure Russian nationalists and local collaborators that it would not be abandoned.
But a Ukrainian offensive, backed by strikes on the bridges with Us-supplied Himars rockets, made supporting the troops there increasingly difficult.
Russian commanders announced the decision to abandon the city on Wednesday evening, saying defending the bridgehead was no longer viable.
The rapid withdrawal appeared to take Ukrainian and Western observers by surprise.
Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s defence ministry spokesman, said its military had completed the “redeployment” in the early hours of yesterday, without leaving behind any hardware or suffering any casualties.
The retreat was marked by reports of overnight chaos as Russians trying to flee came under fire from Ukrainian shelling.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, said “thousands of Russian troops had failed to withdraw in time”.
“Now, thousands of people, with their resources cut off and the possibility of retreat, are looking at a kilometre of water in front of them,” he said.
Locals said large numbers of men and equipment remained trapped in the city, with many Russian troops donning civilian clothes in an attempt to escape.
One Russian soldier posted a video cursing commanders for abandoning troops and said if “we continue to fight like this the same thing will happen in Crimea”.
Alexander Sladkov, another Russian war reporter, said 20,000 troops and 3,500 vehicles had crossed the Dnipro.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Russia had no regrets about annexing Kherson in September and said the decision to withdraw was made entirely by the ministry of defence.