EKO HOT BLOG reports that Russia’s Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered Russian troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson.
The announcement marks one of Russia’s most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war, now nearing the end of its ninth month. But it has brought a sceptical response from Ukraine’s government.
Shoigu said on television that he would “proceed with the withdrawal of the soldiers” after a proposal by the commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin.
Surovikin, in overall command of the war, also appeared on TV. He acknowledged that it was “not at all an easy decision” to make but explained that it was no longer possible to supply Kherson city.
He said he proposed to take up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the river. “We will save the lives of our soldiers and fighting capacity of our units. Keeping them on the right (western) bank is futile. Some of them can be used on other fronts,” Surovikin said.
A senior adviser to Ukraine’s president said on Wednesday that Kyiv saw “no sign” at this stage of Russian forces withdrawing from Kherson.
“We see no sign that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight. Some Russian (troops) are still in the southern Ukrainian city,” said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, blasting “staged TV statements” by Moscow
Until the Ukrainian flag is flying over Kherson, it makes no sense to talk about a Russian withdrawal,” he told Reuters previously.
Earlier, the main bridge on a road out of Kherson city was blown up.
Photos on the internet showed the span of the Darivka bridge on the main highway east out of Kherson completely collapsed into the water of the Inhulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro River. Reuters verified the location of the images.
The news followed weeks of Ukrainian advances towards the city.
Before launching its ground offensive in the north of the Kherson region at the end of the summer, Ukrainian forces disabled key bridges for the supply of Russian forces, thanks in particular to arms delivered by the West, in particular American HIMARS rocket systems.
The Kremlin-installed authorities have been racing to relocate more than 100,000 of the residents who remained in the area after Russia’s occupation in the early days of the full-scale invasion.
Moscow says it has been “evacuating” civilians, but Kyiv has described the population transfers from the right bank of the Dnipro as “deportations”.
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