Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the announcement during a conversation with the commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin.
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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigoiu ordered the withdrawal of Russian forces from the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Ukrainian region of Kherson on Wednesday (November 9th). This includes the regional capital of the same name, the target of a vast Ukrainian counter-offensive. “Proceed with the withdrawal of the soldiers”, Sergei Shoigu told television, on a proposal to that effect from the commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin. He admitted that it was a decision “not at all easy” to take.
>> War in Ukraine: in Kherson, frozen in expectation, both sides prepare for intense fighting
“The maneuvers [de retrait] soldiers will start very quickly”, assured the general. This withdrawal constitutes a new stinging setback for the Kremlin, Kherson having been the main Russian hold, after the conquest of the city in the first days of the offensive against Ukraine. It is the only regional capital that Moscow has been able to claim conquest. According to General Sourovikine, Russia is going to reorganize its line on the other bank of the Dnieper, a natural barrier which flows south of the city of Kherson.
This decline comes just over a month after Vladimir Putin demanded the annexation of the Kherson region and three other Ukrainian regions. The Kherson region is all the more strategic as its territory borders Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Before proposing withdrawal, General Sergei Surovikin argued for a desire to protect the lives of Russian soldiers, and accused Ukrainian forces of bombing civilians. The officer also claimed that his troops were successfully repelling the Ukrainian assaults. “We are successfully resisting the adversary’s attempted assaults”he assured, claiming to have killed or wounded 9,500 Ukrainian soldiers and maintaining that the Russian losses were seven or eight times less.
Russia was carrying out“evacuation” civilians from the right bank of the Dnieper for several weeks – transfers qualified as “deportations” by Kyiv. According to the general Sergei Surovikin, some 115,000 people thus joined the left bank (in the East).