© Reuters. A view shows destroyed military vehicles after Russia withdrew from Kherson, in Kherson, Ukraine November 14, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko.
By Jonathan Landay
KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia withdrew troops and civilian authorities from towns on the banks of the Dnipro river opposite Kherson on Tuesday, a sign that Moscow is likely to retreat further after giving up its part Ukraine’s biggest prize last week.
Modeled in recent weeks by striking from afar from the front after battlefield losses, Russia launched a long-range assault on the capital Kyiv, where air raid sirens sounded, two explosions sounded and the columns of smoke rose to the sky. The mayor said Russian missiles hit two residential buildings.
Last week, Moscow said it was pulling troops across the vast Dnipro to more defensible positions on the opposite bank, giving up the only regional capital held since the invasion in February.
But video images taken in the town of Oeshky, across from the collapsed bridge from Kherson, appear to show that Russian forces have also left bunkers there. Farther east, Russian-installed administrators say they are withdrawing civil servants from Nova Kakhovka on the riverbank next to a huge strategic dam.
Natalya Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military, said Moscow appeared to be redeploying its artillery 15-20 kilometers (10-15 miles) away from the river to protect its guns from counterattacks. of Ukraine.
“There is certain activity by the enemy on the left bank of Dnipro when moving 15-20 kilometers from the shore,” she said. Russia with artillery is still capable of hitting Kherson from those new positions, but “we also have some answers,” she said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told world leaders there would be no abandonment in Ukraine’s military campaign to drive Russian troops out of his country.
“We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its forces, and then start a new series of global terror and destabilization,” he said in a video speech linked to the summit of the Russian Federation. major G20 economies in Indonesia.
“I believe now is the time when Russia’s war of sabotage must and can be stopped.”
In recent days, Ukrainian forces cheered by residents have flooded Kherson for the war’s greatest reward, a city that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared six weeks ago would forever be Russia’s.
DRY ROAD
Tuesday’s air strikes on Kyiv follow a pattern that Russia has maintained since mid-October of launching long-range missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities after defeats defeated on the battlefield. Moscow says it is attacking energy infrastructure. Kyiv says such strikes only strengthen people’s resolve.
“Russia responded to Zelenskiy’s powerful speech at the G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously think the Kremlin really wants peace? They want submission. But in the end the terrorists are the ones who really want peace. Dad always loses,” Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Twitter.
Before pulling out of Kherson last week, Russia had said it was moving its forces through the Dnipro to better defend its territory, including access to the strategic Crimean peninsula that Russia has held for years. 2014.
But in the video shot in Oeshky, across the river from Kherson on the main highway two hours’ drive from Crimea, there isn’t any sign of a Russian presence.
A motorist drives down a deserted main road for miles at high speed without encountering a checkpoint or a Russian flag. Several bunkers set up along the road appear to have been abandoned. The location of the video has been confirmed by Reuters based on visible landmarks.
In Nova Kakhovka, where a huge hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River supplies water to Crimea, the Russian-installed authorities on Tuesday said civil servants had left to avoid shelling, “and have been moved to the safe zone in the area”.
There are no confirmed reports that Ukrainian troops crossed the river in pursuit of the Russians. But some analysts say Ukraine may be trying to gain an advantage on the battlefield, rather than implementing a so-called “operational pause” following advances in recent days.
INERTIA
Philip Ingram, a former senior British military intelligence officer, said: “Ukraine has the initiative and momentum and is giving orders to the Russians about where and when the next war will take place.”
On Monday, Zelenskiy visited Kherson to celebrate his victory there, shaking hands with soldiers and waving to civilians.
For its part, Russia recently said it was focusing on eastern Ukraine, where it claimed to have captured Pavlivka, a frontline village in the Donetsk region. Kyiv says Russia has suffered heavy losses in its attacks in the east and has gained little.
The fighting was at the heart of the G20 summit, where Western leaders condemned Moscow. Russia is a member and Ukraine is not, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is at home.
Speaking at the summit, Zelenskiy described a peace proposal in which Russia would withdraw all its forces, release all prisoners and reaffirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity, all long-standing requests.
He proposed indefinitely expanding Ukraine’s grain export protection program to help feed poor countries, extending it to the port of Mykolaiv, newly out of reach of Russian guns after the Kherson offensive.
Western countries pushed for a summit statement condemning the war, despite Russia’s objections and lack of consensus. Diplomats circulated a 16-page draft that reads: “Most members strongly condemn the war in Ukraine and emphasize that it is causing enormous human suffering and exacerbate existing weaknesses in the global economy.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who led the Russian delegation in Putin’s absence, accused the West of trying to politicize the statement.
