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Russia’s troop withdrawal from Kherson showed its military faces “real problems”, US president Joe Biden has said, as his Ukrainian counterpart urged caution and warned his forces that a fight still lay ahead.
In an announcement televised on Wednesday, the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered his troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the face of Ukrainian attacks. General Sergei Surovikin, is in overall command of Russia’s war operations, called it a “very difficult decision” but conceded that, “Kherson cannot be fully supplied and function”.
In Washington, Biden said the news showed the scale of the difficulties Moscow is facing. “It’s evidence of the fact that they have some real problems, Russia, the Russian military,” the US president told reporters. Regarding the timing of the announcement, he added: “I find it interesting that they waited until after the [US midterm] election to make that judgment.”
Ukraine has responded with caution, saying some Russian forces were still in Kherson and that additional Russian personnel were being sent to the region.
In his national address on Wednesday night, Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged restraint despite “a lot of joy in the media space today”, saying “The enemy does not bring us gifts, does not make ‘gestures of goodwill’. We fight our way up.”
“And when you are fighting, you must understand that every step is always resistance from the enemy, it is always the loss of the lives of our heroes.
“Therefore, we move very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk. In the interests of the liberation of our entire land and so that the losses are as small as possible.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, said in a statement to Reuters: “Until the Ukrainian flag is flying over Kherson, it makes no sense to talk about a Russian withdrawal.”
He later tweeted: “We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight.
