Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered a withdrawal of Russian forces from the west bank of the Dnipro River.
The declaration signalled one of Russia’s biggest withdrawals and perhaps a turning point in the war, which is now approaching the end of its ninth month.
Shoigu announced on television that he will “continue with the evacuation of the forces” in response to a suggestion made by General Sergei Surovikin, the head of Russian operations in Ukraine. Surovikin, who was in charge of the war’s overall strategy, recognized that it was “not at all an easy decision” to make but clarified that Kherson City could no longer be supplied. He claimed that he had suggested setting up guard posts on the river’s eastern bank.
After weeks of Ukrainian advances on the city and a rush by Russia to evacuate more than 100,000 of its citizens, the news broke. “Our ability to fight and the lives of our men will both be preserved. It is useless to try to keep them on the right (western) bank. Several of them have other uses,” explained Surovikin.
The only regional capital that Russian soldiers had taken throughout the eight-month conflict was Kherson. The departure declaration comes after a Russian force withdrawal from the Kharkiv region in September.
The Kherson region and three other Ukrainian territories were purportedly annexed by Vladimir Putin a little over a month ago. All of these locations are regarded as Moscow’s sovereign territory. The Kherson region is more strategically important due to its proximity to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Influential war bloggers in Russia had anticipated the announcement, which they called a painful blow. Despite how difficult it is to write about it right now, it appears like we will evacuate the city, according to the War Gonzo blog, which has more than 1.3 million Telegram followers.
