Kherson will become a “city of death”, a Ukrainian government adviser fears as Russian troops withdraw. The city would be full of mines, even apartments and sewers.
Ukraine has already regained 12 seats in the early hours after Russian Defense Minister Shoygu announced that his troops are leaving the city and the western bank of the Dnieper River. In two directions, they surveyed an area of about 200 square kilometers close to the former first line. The main town is Snihurivka, about 55 kilometers north of Kherson.
Russia thinks it will take at least a few days to move the approximately 30,000 troops across the Dnieper into the occupied hinterland. The question is what will Ukrainian soldiers find when they steam through the city. If that is possible, because President Zelensky does not assume that the red carpet will be rolled out. “The enemy is not giving us gifts,” he said in his video speech of him. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who called Zelensky today, also says he won’t rest until the Ukrainian flag flies across the city.
Deported
In any case, the liberators find a very empty city. Before the war, 300,000 people lived there, but there aren’t many left. Russia has “evacuated” thousands of civilians in recent weeks, under the pretext of protecting itself from the impending violence of the Ukrainian army. But the citizens could not choose where to go: they were taken deeper into the occupied territory or into the Russian territory. Western countries therefore speak of ‘deportation’. Valuables and cultural heritage have also recently been removed from the city carried.
While Ukrainians remain skeptical, more and more Russians are resigned to the fall of the only provincial capital they were holding. Popular war bloggers acknowledge that there was nothing else for it. Supply routes were under constant attack and if the Ukrainians continued, thousands of Russian soldiers would be trapped like rats behind the wide river.
Black page
It wounds Russian-minded war followers. “A black page in the history of the Russian army,” writes a military blogger. The founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says the army chief’s decision “is not easy”, but he “behaved like a man who is not afraid to take responsibility”.
Chechen hardliner Ramzan Kadirov also accepts defeat, despite previous calls for harsh intervention in Ukraine. “After weighing all the pros and cons, General Surovikin made the difficult but right decision between needlessly sacrificing and saving the lives of precious soldiers.”
Disappointed faces can be seen on the TV channel Russia Today (RT). Editor-in-chief and presenter Margarita Simonjan already saw defeat coming in Kherson, but she was still “praying” that the city would not fall.
“Forever part of Russia”
Less than a month and a half ago, Kherson, along with three other Ukrainian regions attached. The region would be part of Russia ‘forever’, was the message celebrated in Moscow. This feeling was also propagated in Kherson City, including with a poster campaign.
The question is whether the Russians’ love for Kherson will remain so hot after all the troops are gone. Ukraine fears that in addition to booby traps, a shower of bombs will land on the city, fired from the still occupied territory on the other side of the Dnieper. On the contrary, Ukraine will not hesitate to damage the departing Russian troops as much as possible, for example during their river crossing.
In any case, Russian (military) leaders have something to remedy to forget this loss of face as soon as possible. Because despite the unanimity among war bloggers, there is also the question of responsibility. “It is necessary to draw conclusions and work on these errors,” writes Prigozhin. “And then we have to understand who was right, who is to blame and what is at the heart of this problem.”
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