- Paul Kirby
- BBC News
Over Ukraine rose on the village of Davidev Bred after the withdrawal of Russian forces in front of the Ukrainian counter-attack
Ukrainian forces liberated a key village in the southern Kherson region, precipitating another Russian military retreat in the face of a Ukrainian counterattack, making Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of victory unrealistic.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense published a video clip showing the 35th Brigade of Ukrainian Marines raising the Ukrainian flag over the village of Davidev Bred, amid reports that several other nearby villages have been retaken.
Russian forces were already forced to retreat into northeastern Ukraine under the weight of the counterattack, which succeeded in pushing Moscow’s forces south as well.
The latest setback for the Russian army came at a time when President Vladimir Putin was signing decrees in force to annex four Ukrainian regions to Russia, but fighting is still raging in those four regions.
Putin’s decision to annex the Ukrainian regions is illegal under international law, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared the annexation process null and void.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Zelensky on Tuesday and assured him that the US would never recognize the Russian annexation. They also discussed $625 million in new US aid, including HIMARS missile launchers.
Russia still controls Kherson, the regional capital, in southern Ukraine. But its hold seems increasingly shaky over the entire region north of the Dnieper River, known as Dnipro in the Ukrainian language.
During the past 48 hours, Ukrainian forces have moved south along the western bank of the river, and Russian units have now been forced to withdraw from several residential areas in the north of Kherson region as well.
Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had made “quick and strong moves” in southern Ukraine and liberated “dozens of settlements” this week alone.
And the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced on social media that “the Ukrainian flag is flying again over the village of Davidev Bred.” Residents filmed Ukrainian soldiers roaming the village.
In his speech on Tuesday evening, Zelensky said that the villages of Lyubimivka, Kreshenevka, Zolota Balka, Belyaevka, Ukrainka, Velika Oleksandryvka and Mala Oleksandrievka were also liberated, “and the list goes on.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Yevin Enin said 50 towns and villages had been retaken and about 3,500 citizens liberated in Kherson, but he did not say when this happened.
The city of Liman looks almost deserted after the departure of the Russian forces
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry later said that the morale of the Russian forces was demoralizing and trying to destroy bridges in an attempt to slow the Ukrainian advance.
Despite the Ukrainian advance, the Kremlin-appointed official in Kherson Kirill Strimosov told residents: “There is no need to panic.”
There was no immediate confirmation of the fall of villages in the northeast of Davidev Bred, and the Russian military spokesman did not mention casualties there.
But in the maps used to illustrate Russian control, it was clear that it no longer included the villages of Arkhanhelsky and Velika Oleksandrivka in the north-east of the region, and also that Russia lost control of Dudchane on the bank of the Dnieper.
Russian military blogger Rybar said the army decided to withdraw because it was in danger of being surrounded. “It is not entirely clear where the new line of communication will be,” he added.
“Many settlements have been razed to the ground, and in some of the settlements there are no intact buildings,” said Roman Holovnya, the exiled deputy mayor of Kherson.
He added that the residents of the city were waiting for the Ukrainian forces, knowing that they were advancing.
Of the 320,000 people who lived there before the war, Holovnya said, only 100,000 remain.
Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian supply lines in the Kherson region for weeks, destroying the few bridges across the river. But their progress south so far has been slow.
Kherson was quickly captured by Russian forces at the start of the war, after they poured in from Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
But Ukraine achieved more dramatic success in Kharkiv in the northeast and in Donetsk, where on Saturday it captured the strategically important town of Lyman. Lyman is part of Donetsk but is seen as the gateway to the Luhansk region, a region under almost complete Russian occupation.
The BBC’s Urla Guerin, reporting from Lehman, said few civilians were still there, while the bodies of many Russian soldiers in uniform were lying outside the town.
photo released, Getty Images
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov have faced criticism for their handling of the war in Ukraine.
Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk are among the Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia, but Putin’s declaration of victory on Friday seemed significantly premature.
A Russian blogger published accounts of two men he described as fighters for Russia from Luhansk, who narrowly escaped the siege near Lyman last week.
One of them, Mekhi, said, “We left Lehman, we only survived by ourselves, no gun or ammunition, nothing. Everything was burnt. All our friends and comrades remained there (dead).”
Russia has so far mobilized more than 200,000 troops since President Putin issued the partial mobilization order last month, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The initial target of “partial mobilization” was 300,000 soldiers, but the conscription campaign was overshadowed by stories of Russians who tried to escape conscription or acquired inferior equipment upon joining.
Kazakhstan alone has reported that more than 200,000 Russians have crossed its border in the past two weeks.