Reuters Russians withdraw from the riverbank in front of Kherson, Ukraine 15.11.2022 10:46

Russia withdrew military and civilian administrators from towns on the Dnipro River opposite Kherson on Tuesday; it’s a sign that the Russians are backing off even more after handing over their top trophy in Ukraine last week.

After casualties on the battlefield, Moscow launched long-range attacks on the capital, Kiev, where air raid sirens sounded, two explosions were heard and smoke could be seen rising from the ground.

Ukrainian forces have occupied Kherson in recent days to claim the war’s biggest ever trophy, a city that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared six weeks ago to forever belong to Russia.

Russia said it was dragging its forces along the Dnipro River to more easily defended positions on the opposite bank. But in a video shot in the town of Oleshky across a collapsed bridge crossing from Kherson to Dnipro, there was no sign of any Russian presence.

A driver drove for miles at high speed along the deserted main road without encountering a single checkpoint or a Russian flag. The few bunkers set up along the way looked abandoned. The location of the video was confirmed by Reuters based on visible landmarks.

The Ukrainian military said it opened fire on enemy positions in Oleshky overnight, but Ukrainian officials did not comment on footage showing Russian troops retreating to the area.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told world leaders that Ukraine will not give up on its military campaign to drive Russian soldiers out of the country, following last week’s victory in Russia’s only regional capital it has captured since the invasion.

“We will not allow Russia to wait, strengthen its forces and start a new set of terrorism and global destabilization,” he said in a video broadcast at the G20 summit of major economies in Indonesia. “I am convinced that now is the time when Russia’s devastating war must and can be stopped.”