According to Russian information, the withdrawal of the occupying forces from Cherson has been completed. There are first pictures of Ukrainian soldiers from the city. A bridge over the Dnipro River has been destroyed, presumably by the withdrawing Russians.
Ukrainian troops have reached the center of southern Ukraine’s Cherson. Pictures showing Ukrainian soldiers in the city are circulating on social media. Ukraine had previously liberated numerous towns in the region of the same name.
The Ukrainian government has shown skepticism over the past few days as to whether Russia really will give up Kherson without a fight. There were also reports of Russian soldiers in civilian clothes remaining in the city to engage the Ukrainian army in urban fighting.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced in the morning that the “transfer” of soldiers from the right bank of the Dnipro was complete. Neither soldiers nor weapons were left behind and there were no casualties, said ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. Probably not: the withdrawal reportedly took place under Ukrainian fire.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed to journalists that the withdrawal does not mean that Russia is giving up the territory. Moscow illegally annexed Cherson and three other Ukrainian regions in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently wants as little as possible to be associated with the withdrawal: Peskov did not want to answer questions about this, the Ministry of Defense is responsible for that.
In the morning, a bridge in Cherson collapsed over the Dnipro River, as reported by the Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, among others. The transmitter does not report whether the Antonivka Bridge was destroyed by shelling or blown up. An army spokesman simply told Suspilne: “The military operation is ongoing and requires absolute silence.” According to information from Ukrinform, the bridge was blown up by the Russian military.
The Antonivka Bridge was already so badly damaged that it could not be used by heavy vehicles. The destruction of the bridges over the Dnipro, which is several hundred meters wide at this point, was part of the Ukrainian offensive in the south. This was intended to cut off the supply lines of the Russian occupying forces in Cherson. If the Russians have now blown up the bridge, the intention behind it would probably be to make it difficult for the Ukrainian army to cross the river.
“It was very noisy at night, but you couldn’t see what was happening there,” a local resident told Suspilne. “We also heard explosions in the morning. Only when the fog cleared did we see that part of the bridge had collapsed.” Suspilne also posted a photo showing that a whole piece of the bridge is missing. Another resident of Kherson told ntv.de in a text message in the morning that the Ukrainian army was shelling the southern bank of the Dnipro. “It’s very noisy. The Ukrainians are heavily bombing the left bank and/or ferries/boats.”
Pictures are circulating on Twitter showing that a pontoon bridge laid by the Russians next to the Antonivka Bridge was also damaged. Another video shows Russian soldiers walking across the pontoon.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the withdrawal from Kherson on Wednesday. The Russians portray the withdrawal from the city as a “regrouping of forces”; in fact, it is obviously a serious military defeat. From Cherson, Putin actually wanted to conquer the entire south of Ukraine, up to the important port city of Odessa. From the point of view of Russian propaganda, the territory of “Novorossiya”, Ukraine, if the plan had been successful, would have been completely cut off from the sea.
The city of Mykolaiv was shelled by the Russian army during the night. According to Ukrainian sources, a residential building was destroyed and several people died. Mykolaiv is located between Kherson and Odessa.
