(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Following weeks of steady progress in its counteroffensive, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday. Many anticipated that Kyiv would applaud this action as a significant triumph.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have cautioned against haste and expressed doubt about their motivations.
Zelensky said our feelings must be controlled. The adversary brings no gifts.
In a Wednesday night speech to the country, Zelensky remarked. “As a result, we move gently, without feeling anything, and without taking excessive risks.”
After the war, Kherson became the first significant territory to fall to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soldiers. Due in part to its strategic location and proximity to Crimea, it had been Russia’s most significant military accomplishment of the fight.
Putin unlawfully seized one of the four territories in September after phony referendums in Kherson.
Since October, the commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, Sergey Surovikin, announced on Wednesday that his troops would be retreating over the Dnieper River to “protect the lives of our soldiers and the military group’s combat readiness.
Nine months into the conflict, after weeks of Kyiv’s advances on the city and as Russia began to evacuate hundreds of thousands of its citizens, the disengagement was officially declared.
Nataliia Humeniuk, chief of the joint coordination press center of Ukraine’s Southern Defense and Security Forces, was quick to express caution. She indicated that Russia’s pullout announcement might be a ruse to deceive Kyiv.
The deputy defense minister of Ukraine has warned reporters that “Russians cannot be trusted.” A Ukrainian military source told Ukrainskaya Pravda that Russian forces might be gaining time to build a line of defense along the Dnieper River.
An example of the mistrust can be seen following the reports that a newly appointed regional chief was killed in a car accident on Wednesday.
Yuriy Sobolevskyi, First Vice-President of the Kherson Regional Council, said on his Telegram channel that they currently have no way of confirming or denying the rumors that collaborator Kirill Stremousov died in an accident, as reported by the occupiers and Russian sources.
It might be staged, or it might be fact.