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| PHOTO: VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTERS |
Ukrainian forces moved to re-establish full control over the key southern city of Kherson, filling a vacuum left by Russian troops as civilians celebrated the end of eight months under occupation.
Ukrainian special units entered Kherson on Friday after Moscow abandoned the city—the only regional capital to fall under its control this year—in one of the biggest reversals since Russia invaded its neighbor.
Hundreds of residents gathered in the central square in front of the Kherson regional-administration building from which Russian forces removed their flag earlier this month, breaking into song and chanting in support of the Ukrainian armed forces. Some embraced Ukrainian soldiers and wept tears of joy while others waved their country’s blue-and-yellow flag.
One video posted by a local journalist showed civilians, hand in hand, dancing around a bonfire and singing while passing cars blared their horns.
“We have seen our soldiers in Freedom Square,” said local resident Oksana Pohomiy, who remained in the city for the duration of the occupation. “Kherson is liberated. We are happy.”
Bomb-disposal experts are searching for explosives planted by Russian forces, said the head of Ukraine’s national police, Ihor Klymenko, warning residents to be careful and avoid touching suspicious objects. Police are establishing checkpoints in and around Kherson as they begin the process of collecting testimony and evidence of Russian crimes, he said. Mr. Klymenko urged residents who previously left Kherson not to return yet. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo: genya savilov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images |
Russia retreats from more of the territory it seized this year.
Russia’s retreat from the city of Kherson on Friday is another major milestone in Ukraine’s counteroffensive to reclaim territory lost since the Feb. 24 invasion. Ukraine’s progress continues to vindicate Western aid and shows the price Russia is paying for Vladimir Putin’s folly.
A major port city, Kherson was the only regional capital the Russians seized since February. Russia viewed the city, on the western side of the Dnipro River, as the gateway to Mykolaiv and Odessa, and control of every Ukrainian port on the Black Sea. An invasion of Moldova might have been next.
As Ukrainian troops rolled into Kherson, residents cheered, waved Ukrainian flags, and played the national anthem. Friday’s exuberant response gives the lie to the Kremlin’s claims in September that Kherson oblast had overwhelmingly voted in support of Russia’s annexation. That referendum was held under occupation terror.
As in the north in Kharkiv, Ukraine has made good use of more advanced Western weapons to move on the Russians. The Himar missile system the U.S. withheld in the war’s early months has been especially effective. Ukraine pummeled the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnipro and made Russian resupply difficult.
The Kremlin claims it has evacuated some 70,000 people from Kherson on humanitarian grounds, but it’s far from clear they all moved voluntarily. Russia has repeatedly taken Ukrainian civilians as hostages, with some forcibly resettled in Russia. In the Donbas in the east, Ukrainians have sometimes been conscripted to fight against their own countrymen. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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