Ukrainian troops have advanced in the south of the country after Moscow ordered the withdrawal of its forces from Kherson. An announcement that the Kyiv authorities have taken with caution while warning that it could be a Russian strategy to turn Kherson, the only provincial capital under Russian control since March 1, into a "city of death" for Ukrainian soldiers . Meanwhile, the Russian authorities have reported that the withdrawal from the north of the region is already underway.
The commander in chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, assured this Thursday morning that Kyiv could not yet confirm if Russia was withdrawing, but that the Ukrainian troops had advanced seven kilometers in the last 24 hours and recovered 12 towns in the South of the country. "We continue to carry out the offensive operation according to our plan," he wrote in a post on Telegram.
According to the military high command, Ukrainian troops liberated in the last 24 hours more than 160 square kilometers of territory summing up the Petropavlivka-Novoraisk front, in the east of Khershon, and that of Pervomaiske-Jhershon, further south.
A small group of Ukrainian soldiers recorded a video that was broadcast on Ukrainian state television and social media from the center of the village of Snihurivka, in the Mikolaiv region and about 55 kilometers north of the city of Kherson. They were greeted by dozens of residents in a square, with a Ukrainian flag fluttering on a pole behind them. "Today, November 10, Snihurivka was liberated by the forces of the 131st Separate Reconnaissance Battalion. Glory to Ukraine!" a soldier yelled as civilians clapped and cheered.
Zaluzhnyi also reported that since October 1, Ukrainian troops have advanced 36.5 kilometers inside the Russian defense on the Jershon front, and the total area of reclaimed territory amounts to 1,381 square kilometers.
Despite the fact that Russia has announced its withdrawal from the western bank of the Dnieper River, Kyiv has said that it is wary and has warned that it may be some kind of trap by the Kremlin. Mykhail Podolyak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Thursday that Russia wants to turn Kherson into a "city of death", laying mines in every corner, from apartments to sewers, and intending to bomb it from the other side. from the river. "This is what (the) 'Russian world' looks like: came, stole, celebrated, killed 'witnesses', left ruins and left," he wrote on Twitter.
For his part, Zaluzhnyi indicated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces "destroyed the logistics routes and the supply and control system of the occupation troops on the Kherson front. Therefore, the Russian troops had no choice but to flee." . However, the commander in chief also stated that he could neither confirm nor deny the information about the alleged withdrawal.
The advances in the Ukrainian offensive occur at the same time that Moscow confirmed the abandonment of the region that was announced on Wednesday by the head of the Russian troops deployed in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin. "The maneuver of moving Russian troop units to prepared positions on the left bank of the Dnieper River is being carried out in strict accordance with the approved plan," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov reported in his war report. thursday diary.
From Rome, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured journalists that, if really effective, a withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson "would be a new victory" for Kyiv. "We have to see how the situation develops on the ground in the next few days," he said after a meeting with the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni. "But what is clear is that Russia is under great pressure," added the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance.
