Russia announced its decision to withdraw troops from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson after it was captured by the Kremlin during its offensive in February. The move to retreat came as the United States estimated more than 100,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
Following the withdrawal, world leaders lauded Russia’s positive move, while others highlighted Kremlin’s “real problems” in the war.
US President Joe Biden said that Russia’s withdrawal from the strategic Ukrainian city of Kherson showed Moscow has “real problems” in the war.
“It’s evidence of the fact that they have some real problems, Russia, the Russian military,” Biden told reporters in Washington.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia’s decision to withdraw troops from near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson is a positive step, on Thursday.
However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv was moving “very carefully” after Russia announced it was pulling out of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
“The enemy does not give us gifts, does not make ‘goodwill gestures’, we win it all,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“Therefore, we are moving very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk, in the interests of liberating all our land and so that the losses are as small as possible.”
Kherson city was the only regional capital Russia captured after its invasion in February, and it has been the focus of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. The city controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro, the river that bisects Ukraine. Russian-installed officials have been evacuating tens of thousands of civilians in recent weeks.
Kherson region is one of four that President Vladimir Putin declared in September he was incorporating into Russia “forever”, and which Moscow said had been placed under its nuclear umbrella.
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