Russia said today that it has completed the withdrawal of its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, after Moscow announced that it had made a “difficult decision” to withdraw.
“Today at 05:00 Moscow time (23:00 GMT, Thursday), the transfer of Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnieper River has been completed,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on social media. Said.
The Kremlin says it sees Kherson as a Russian. Despite the ministry’s statement, the Kremlin said it continues to consider the entire Kherson region of Ukraine, including Russia’s eponymous capital, as its own. Moscow annexed this region in September.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the Kherson region is “a matter of the Russian Federation”. “There can be no change,” he added, in the first comment of the Russian presidency on Wednesday (9th) of the withdrawal of his forces from this region, in the face of Ukraine’s advance.
The spokesperson said that Putin does not regret the annexation. Peskov added that the Russian presidency “does not regret” the major annexation ceremony in September, when President Vladimir Putin announced that four regions of Ukraine, including Kherson, would belong to Russia.
The spokesperson declined to comment on Kherson’s withdrawal; this is a drastic military setback after several months of campaign in which this city was the only regional capital captured by the Russians.
The announcement of the withdrawal came after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the northeastern Kharkiv region in September.
Russia says it wants to “consolidate positions”. Moscow said it withdrew from the west bank of the Dnieper River, where the city of Kherson is located, to consolidate its positions on the other side by establishing a natural barrier.
Ukraine, with the help of Western countries, especially with a high-precision rocket launcher system HIMARS, managed to destroy the Russian supply routes and forced them to retreat.
source: Noticias
