Kyiv: Russia’s military announced Wednesday that it is withdrawing from Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson and surrounding areas, in what would be another in a series of humiliating setbacks for Moscow’s forces in an 8-month-old war. Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the move, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested in recent days that the Russians were pretending to retreat from Kherson in order to entrap Ukrainian forces in an embroiled battle. Zelensky attempted to persuade citizens to delve deeper into the Russian-controlled territory theatre. General Sergei Surovikin, the top Russian military commander in Ukraine, told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it was impossible to supply supplies to the city of Kherson and other areas on the west bank of the Dnieper River.
Shoigu agreed with his proposal to retreat and establish defenses on the east coast. The withdrawal from Kherson, which sits in an area of the same name that Moscow had illegally occupied, would be another significant blow.
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The city, with a pre-war population of 280,000, is the only regional capital to be occupied by Russian forces since the February 24 invasion. Ukrainian forces zeroed in on the strategic industrial city, which sits on the Dnieper River that divides the region and the country.
During the summer, Ukrainian troops launched relentless attacks to reclaim parts of the larger province. According to Moscow-appointed officials, more than 70,000 residents were evacuated at the end of October, along with members of the regional government set up by the Kremlin, although Ukrainian officials questioned this claim.
The remains of the Russian general Grigory Potemkin, who founded Kherson in the 18th century, were also reportedly transferred from the city’s St. Catherine’s Church.
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The city and parts of the surrounding area were seized in the early days of the conflict as Russian troops pushed their offensive north from Crimea, an area illegally occupied by the Kremlin in 2014.
In recent months, Ukraine has repeatedly used US-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to cross an important bridge over the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam which is also used as a crossing point. . The attacks forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine had also targeted.
The Russian announcement came as more heavy fighting and shelling broke out in Ukraine’s villages and towns on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s presidential office said at least nine civilians were killed and 24 others were injured in 24 hours. It accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and planes to strike eight areas in the country’s southeast.
Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight in Snihurivka, a town about 50 kilometers (30 mi) north of the southern city of Kherson.
The presidential office said widespread Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system were continuing. It said two cities far from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant were shelled overnight. More than 20 residential buildings, an industrial plant, a gas pipeline and a power line were reportedly damaged in Nikopol, which is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.
Further west, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian governor reported “heavy” attacks overnight with the detonation of Iranian-made drones, injuring four energy company employees in the city of Dnipro.
Attacks on civilian infrastructure are war crimes in themselves. The Kremlin is at war with Ukrainian civilians, trying to leave millions without water and light (for them) to freeze in winter, Governor Valentin Reznichenko said on Ukrainian TV.