Posted on November 6, 2022 at 6:01 p.m. Updated November 7, 2022 at 9:16 am.
Is the Russian army preparing to evacuate the city of Kherson, which has been occupied since March 2? For several days, videos have been circulating on social networks showing abandoned Russian positions on the outskirts of the city and the disappearance of the tricolor that used to be flying on top of the regional administration building.
A counter-offensive launched at the end of August pushed Russian forces back about thirty kilometers from the city and enabled Ukraine to liberate almost 1,200 square kilometers of occupied territory. In the face of the advance of the Ukrainian army in the region, the Russian authorities announced in mid-October the deportation of the city’s residents to the Russian-held left bank of the Dnieper under the pretext of a “humanitarian operation”.
70,000 displaced
According to the head of the city’s collaborative administration, Vladimir Saldo, nearly 70,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks. The Russian troops are also said to have stolen works of art (sculptures etc.) and vehicles and transported their loot to the other side of the river.
But the Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the southern front do not believe in the possibility of a Russian retreat from Kherson: “We will have to fight to recapture the city,” assures Vadym, known as “Bartender”, posing in front of the GRAD multiple rocket launcher, which was launched by used by its artillery unit and based in a village about thirty kilometers from Kherson.
“Prepared” Russians
For the young man, the Russians have been “prepared for a long time” for a possible Ukrainian attack on the city. An opinion shared by his superior Roman, known as “Mister”: “According to our information, the Russian units in Kherson are entrenched in well-developed defensive positions, he explains. Don’t be fooled by the rumors that have been circulating lately. »
A warning common to the entire Ukrainian General Staff: In a recent televised intervention, spokeswoman for the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Natalia Goumenyuk stated that recent events in Kherson could be part of a misinformation campaign aimed at luring Ukrainians into a Trap and potential “city fights”.
“Psychological Operation”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also assured Corriere della Sera at the end of October that the rumors of a Russian withdrawal from Kherson were only a “psychological operation” aimed at luring Ukrainian forces into the region and to eliminate other fronts: “I don’t see them fleeing from Kherson […], their best trained soldiers are still there. nobody left »
Citing Ukrainian authorities, the Institute for the Study of War, a United States-based think tank, noted in a report released on Saturday that Russian forces “are still conducting maneuvers and establishing defense lines on the right bank.”
Nine months after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Kherson remained the only capital of the region captured by the Russian army. It has both symbolic and strategic importance for Moscow: located at the mouth of the Dnieper, the city is an important industrial center and one of the most important Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
The region is also part of a corridor connecting Russia with Crimea, occupied and annexed in 2014, and plays a central role in the peninsula’s drinking water supply: a canal carrying water from the Dnieper River, crossing the region thus supplying 85% of its fresh water, until the valves were closed by the Ukrainian government in 2019.