Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian forces advance in Kherson

Ukrainian troops are advancing toward the southern region of Kherson, the only major Ukrainian territory that Russia seized since invading in February. This week, Ukraine has slowly advanced into the region as Moscow has ordered its troops to withdraw.

Ukrainian forces are slowly advancing into Kherson, wary of return fire by Russia, as Russian troops started a retreat, with the possibility of Ukraine reclaiming the port city becoming likely. Ukrainian forces on the frontline fire two blasts before moving quickly and hiding from Russian surveillance drones and those with weapons.

“Now we dominate, they are slowly retreating. The Russians used all reserves but they could only reach our front line,” Kosiak, a Ukrainian artillery commander, told Al Jazeera. “The situation with drones is complicated. They are flying always, every day, and every hour. It was scary only at the beginning of war, now we just do our job. Even when they fire back at us, we don’t panic. We are used to war.”

Russian General Sergey Suroivkin ordered the troop withdrawal Wednesday, moving to the east bank of the Dnieper river. However, Kyiv has warned that the order may be a trap for Ukraine. According to military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson is a “disaster” in a political aspect, but “made sense” militarily.

“Politically it’s very embarrassing. Militarily it makes sense and that’s why most likely the Russian generals pressed through with such a decision,” said Felgenhauer.

Felgenhauer added that the withdrawal from Kherson does not signal a defeat, as the withdrawal is apparently done in an organized manner. Felgenhauer explained that Ukrainian forces would be advancing “cautiously,” wary of potential traps.

Ukraine’s military chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said Thursday that in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have advanced seven kilometers in the south while reclaiming 12 new settlements. The advance was in the direction of Kherson from Pervomaiske and to Novoraysk from Petropavlivka, parallel with the Dnipro river.

Zaluzhnyi said Ukraine has made a total of 264 square kilometers of territorial gains so far. In a post on the Telegram messaging platform, Zaluzhnyi said that while the Russian troop withdrawal in Kherson has yet to be confirmed, they will move forward with their offensive.