As Kherson residents celebrate Russian pull-out, Ukraine’s military works to stabilise city

Name: Russia orders troop pull-out from Ukraine’s strategic port city of Kherson
Uploaded: 2022-11-12T12:05:14.000Z
Duration: 1 min 17 s
Description: Russia orders troop pull-out from Ukraine’s strategic port city of Kherson

Ukraine’s special military units have reached Kherson city, but a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops remained under way

The Kremlin’s troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnipro river after abandoning Kherson but were fortifying their battle lines on the river’s eastern bank

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Residents of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia’s military during the ongoing invasion, awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating that broke out in the city and surrounding areas after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnipro river. Photo: Kyodo

Associated Press

Published: 8:05pm, 12 Nov 2022

The Ukrainian military carried out “stabilisation measures” near the southern city of Kherson on Saturday following the end of an eight-month occupation by Russian forces, a retreat that cast a further pall on President Vladimir Putin’s designs to take over large parts of Ukraine.

Residents of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia’s military during the ongoing invasion, awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating that broke out in the city and surrounding areas after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnipro river.

In a regular social media update Saturday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said the Russians were fortifying their battle lines on the river’s eastern bank after abandoning the capital. About 70 per cent of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.

Ukrainian officials from President Volodymyr Zelensky on down cautioned that while special military units had reached Kherson city, a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops still was under way. On Friday, Ukraine’s intelligence agency said it thought some Russian soldiers stayed behind, ditching their uniforms for civilian clothes to avoid detection.

“Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemy’s presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers’ stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address late Friday.

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Russia orders troop pull-out from Ukraine’s strategic port city of Kherson

Photos circulating Saturday on social media showed Ukrainian activists removing memorial plaques put up by the occupation authorities the Kremlin installed to run the Kherson region. A Telegram post on the channel of Yellow Ribbon, a self-described Ukrainian “public resistance” movement, showed two people in a park taking down plaques picturing what appeared to be Soviet-era military figures.