Russia orders its troops to withdraw from Jerson, in a new reverse in Ukraine

Russia ordered its troops to withdraw from Kherson on Wednesday before the advance of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, in a new setback that forces it to leave the only regional capital that it had conquered in almost nine months of military operation.

The withdrawal was announced after the evacuation in recent weeks of more than 100,000 civilians from the area, an operation denounced by the Ukrainian authorities as a “deportation”.

Prior to Kherson (on), Russia had to withdraw in September from the region of Jarkov (northwest), in the face of the overwhelming Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, ordered at that time the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to consolidate the lines and regain the initiative on the ground. Tens of thousands of members of that contingent are already in combat zones.

“Proceed to withdraw the soldiers,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told General Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, on television on Wednesday, admitting that the decision to withdraw to the right bank of the dnieper river it was “no easy thing”.

Russia In this way, he leaves not only his greatest campaign trophy, a city that before the conflict had 280,000 inhabitants, but also the capital of one of the four zones that were annexed at the end of September.

The region of Kherson It is also of strategic importance because it borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Perplexity in kyiv

the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskystated in the evening that his country was reacting with “extreme caution” to Russia’s announcement.

“The enemy does not give us any gifts, does not show any ‘goodwill gesture’, we must earn everything,” Zelensky said in a message. “Thus, we must show extreme caution, without emotion, without taking useless risks, to free our entire land with the least possible loss.”

The counselor of the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo PodoliakHe said that so far he had seen “no sign that Russia is leaving Kherson without fighting” and that some of Moscow’s troops were still in the city.

A resident of Kiev, Serguii Filonchuk, does not believe that Russia will abandon Jerson’s departure without more.

“I think (the Russians) are up to something … maybe some trap. I don’t think they will give up,” the 48-year-old said.

Iaroslav Shamroienkoa 36-year-old taxi driver from the capital, maintains instead that the Russian announcement shows that the Ukrainian counteroffensve “is developing well.”

“We have to expel the occupants from our lands,” he says.

General Surovikin justified the withdrawal by saying he wanted to protect Russian soldiers and accused Ukrainian forces of bombing civilians.

“We think first of all about the life of every Russian soldier,” he declared, and assured that the Russian army “successfully resists attempted assaults” by the Ukrainians.

Putin has not commented on this decision so far, but some of his close collaborators have, such as the founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, Evgeni Prigojin, for whom General Surovikin had to choose “between making an absurd sacrifice or saving his life of the soldiers.”

And his decision “was difficult, but fair,” he considered.

“Real problems”

Surovikin also announced that the occupation authorities had “evacuated” 115,000 people from the right to the left bank of the Dnieper in recent weeks.

For the American president, Joe BidenMoscow’s decision “shows that they have real problems, Russia and the Russian army” in its military campaign.

For its part, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), proposed to the 27 member countries of the EU to grant a package of 18,000 million euros (a similar figure in dollars) to Ukraine for 2023, in the form of loans.

The Ukrainian president thanked the European “solidarity”.

The possibility that the Republicans win the legislative elections in the United States generated fears in Ukraine about the future position of Washington, although the White House assured that the support was “unfailing”.

The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, also considered that the result of the elections, halfway through the term of Democratic President Joe Biden, will not in any way undermine Western military support for Ukraine.

“It is absolutely clear that there is strong bipartisan support in the United States to continue to support Ukraine and that has not changed,” he said.

kg