Ukrainian troops retake Kherson amid jubilation

Ukrainian troops have retaken Kherson amid jubilation by residents after Russia abandoned the only regional capital it had captured since its invasion in February.

Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said Kherson was returning to Ukrainian control and ordered any remaining Russian troops to surrender to Ukrainian forces entering the city.

Video footage showed dozens of Ukrainians cheering and chanting victory slogans in Kherson’s central square, where the apparent first Ukrainian troops to arrive snapped selfies in the crowd.

“Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! Glory to the Nation!” one man shouted in another video.

Locals had placed Ukrainian flags in the square as news of the end of more than eight months of occupation filtered out.

Serhiy Khlan, a member of Ukraine’s regional council for Kherson, said the regional capital was now almost fully under the control of Ukrainian forces.

Russia said it had withdrawn 30,000 troops across the Dnipro River without losing a single soldier, but Ukrainians painted a picture of a chaotic retreat, with Russian troops ditching their uniforms, abandoning weapons and drowning while trying to flee.

Also Read: More civilians flee Kherson as Ukrainian troops advance

The withdrawal from Kherson is the third major Russian retreat of the war and the first to involve abandoning such a large occupied city.

Moscow’s forces were driven in March from the outskirts of the capital Kyiv and ousted from the northeastern region of Kharkiv in September.

Kherson province is one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed from Ukraine in late September.

The loss of the regional capital would appear to end dreams expressed by some Russians of seizing Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast, although Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the region’s annexed status remained unchanged.

The only road route near Kherson across the river, the already damaged Antonivskiy bridge, collapsed. Russian military bloggers said it was probably blown up as Russian troops withdrew.

The Russian defence ministry said it had adopted “defensive lines and positions” on the eastern bank of the river, which Moscow hopes will be able to better supply and defend.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision to retreat was taken by the defence ministry. Asked by reporters if it was humiliating for Putin, Peskov said: “No.”

Zainab Sa’id