Russia withdrawing, Ukrainian official fears ‘city of death’
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia said it began withdrawing troops from a strategic Ukrainian city Thursday, creating a potential turning point in the grinding war, while a Ukrainian official warned that Russian land mines could render Kherson a “city of death.”
Ukrainian officials acknowledged Moscow’s forces had no choice but to flee Kherson, yet they remained cautious, fearing an ambush. With Ukrainian officials tight-lipped with their assessments, reporters not present and spotty communications, it was difficult to know what was happening in the port city, where the residents who remained after tens of thousands fled were afraid to leave their homes.
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A forced pullout from Kherson — the only provincial capital Moscow had captured after invading Ukraine — would mark one of Russia’s worst setbacks of the war. Recapturing the city, whose pre-war population was 280,000, could provide Ukraine a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Ukrainian forces seem to be scoring more battlefield successes elsewhere in the Kherson region. The armed forces commander-in-chief, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said Kyiv’s forces have advanced 36.5 kilometers (22.7 miles) and retaken 41 villages and towns since Oct. 1 in the province, which the Kremlin has illegally annexed. That included 12 settlements on Wednesday alone.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the Russian troops laid mines throughout Kherson as they withdrew to turn it into a “city of death” and predicted they would shell it from occupied areas across the Dnieper River.
From these new positions, the Kremlin could try to escalate the 8 1/2-month war, which U.S. assessments showed may already have killed or wounded tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Arkadiy Dovzhenko, who fled Kherson in June, said his grandparents told him Thursday that “the Russians were bringing a lot of equipment into the town and also mining every inch of it.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a troop withdrawal from Kherson and nearby areas on Wednesday after his top general in Ukraine reported that a loss of supply routes during Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive made a defense “futile.”
Shoigu’s ministry reported Thursday a “maneuver of units of the Russian group” to the Dnieper River’s eastern bank, also known as its left bank. Some Western observers, including the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, believe the Kremlin’s forces were forced to pull out, and that it could take time.
On Thursday, Ukrainian officials appeared to soften the skepticism they had expressed over whether the Russians were really on the run or trying to trap Ukraine’s soldiers. “The enemy had no other choice but to resort to fleeing,” armed forces chief Zaluzhny said, because Kyiv’s army destroyed supply systems and disrupted Russia’s local military command.
Still, he said the Ukrainian military could not confirm a Russian withdrawal.
