Russia to pull troops from key city
Wary Ukraine says Kherson retreat may ‘well be an ambush’
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s military announced Wednesday that it’s withdrawing from the only Ukrainian regional capital it’s captured, in what would be one of the most significant and humiliating setbacks for Moscow’s forces in the war.
Ukrainian authorities, however, cautioned against considering the retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city.
If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson — in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed this year — would mark another setback after Russia’s early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic retreat from the administrative region around Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which never fell to the Russians. Russian forces captured Kherson early in the invasion, which began Feb. 24.
Kyiv’s forces have zeroed in on the city and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops from wide swaths of territory.
Recapturing Kherson
could allow Ukraine to win back lost territory in the Zaporizhzhia region and other southern areas, leading to an eventual push back into Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014. A Russian retreat is almost certain to raise domestic pressure on the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.
Speaking on Russian TV, Moscow’s top military commander in Ukraine pointed to a map as he reported to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply the city of Kherson and that its defense would be “futile.”
Gen. Sergei Surovikin
said 115,000 people had been relocated because their “lives are constantly in danger,” and proposed a military retreat to the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson.
Shoigu ordered Surovikin to “start with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to ensure the safe transfer of personnel, weapons and equipment across the Dnieper River.”
But Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said: “So far, we do not see any signs that Russia is completely leaving the city, which means that these statements may be disinformation.”
Yaroslav Yanushevych, Kherson’s Ukrainian-appointed governor, called on residents “not to give in to euphoria” just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow the advance of Kyiv’s forces.
Military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told The Associated Press that Russia’s announced retreat “could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive, force them to penetrate the Russian defenses, and in response to strike with a powerful blow from the flanks.”
Meanwhile, reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. The death of Kirill Stremousov — a key official who posted updates about the war almost daily — was confirmed by his boss, Vladimir Saldo.
The Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly pullout from Kherson for months, contrasting with the haphazard retreat from the Kharkiv region when the invading force left behind a large amount of weapons and ammunition. In October, Surovikin appeared to set the stage for a possible withdrawal from Kherson, calling the situation “quite difficult” for Moscow. Evacuations of civilians followed.
In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.
The attacks disrupted supply links to Kherson and made Russian forces on the Dnieper’s west bank vulnerable to encirclement. The shortages were exacerbated after an Oct. 8 truck bomb blew up part of the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russia’s mainland to Crimea — a key hub for Russian forces in the south.
The loss of Kherson could see painful consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin: more criticism of Russia’s military command from the country’s hawks, a further decline in troop morale and stronger opposition to troop mobilization.
Other Kremlin setbacks have included a chaotic and mistake-ridden troop mobilization, poor training and a shortage of weapons, clothing and other supplies for troops, increase in international sanctions, and intensified Western advanced weapons supplies to Kyiv.
The Russian retreat announcement came as villages and towns in Ukraine saw more heavy fighting and shelling Wednesday. At least nine civilians were killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian president’s office said.