BLACHODATNE, Ukraine (Reuters)November 11 – Cheerful residents welcomed Ukrainian troops as they arrived in central Kherson on Friday after Russia handed over the only regional capital it had occupied since the February invasion. Russia said it had withdrawn his 30,000 troops across the Dnipro without losing a single soldier. But Ukrainians painted a picture of a chaotic retreat, with Russian troops stripping their uniforms, dropping their weapons, and drowning as they tried to escape in a consequence order for all remaining Russian forces to surrender in front of the Kyiv forces invading the city.
As Ukrainian troops advanced on him in one of the most humiliating Russian retreats of the war, the villagers emerged from their hideouts, weeping tears of relief and joy, recounting how the Russian forces had killed the inhabitants who reported that Russians were looting houses. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report, and the Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to questions about allegations by residents of the recaptured Vlahodatne village, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Kherson. Serhiy Klan, a member of Ukraine’s Kherson Regional Council, said the provincial capital was now almost entirely under Ukrainian military control. Many Russian soldiers drowned trying to flee into the river, some in civilian clothes, he said, and told residents not to leave their homes while a search was conducted for the remaining Russian troops.
Natalia Khmeniuk, the spokesperson for the Southern Military Command of Ukraine, said that “the possibility of sabotage” by plainclothes Russian troops cannot be ruled out. Two days after Moscow announced its withdrawal, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had completed its withdrawal from the west bank of the Dnipro River, where the city of Kherson is located. All Russian servicemen crossed to the left bank,” it added, saying that Russia had not suffered any loss of personnel or equipment. Pro-Russian war bloggers had reported late on Thursday that Russian forces crossing the river were coming under heavy fire from Ukrainian forces.
The Russian ministry said Ukrainian forces had struck Dnipro river crossings five times overnight with U. S. -supplied HIMARS rocket systems. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told Reuters on Thursday that it would take at least a week for Russia to withdraw from Kherson.
They said that Russian troops withdrew without a fight on Wednesday and Ukrainian forces moved on Thursday. The Russians killed a man who got too close to the trench and took away two other men and a young woman. “For his first two months, they came and were very aggressive,” said Kalko, a villager, adding that Russian soldiers fired into the air as they walked down the street. Kherson province is one of the four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to have annexed from Ukraine at the end of September. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the annexation status of the region would not change, but the loss of the provincial capital was a dream expressed by some Russians of conquering the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had adopted “defensive lines and positions” on the east bank of the river and hoped Moscow would be better supplied and defended.
