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Experts speculated on Thursday about the true intentions behind Russia’s announced withdrawal from Kherson. Many suspects suspected a Russian deception manoeuvre, a so-called “Maskirovka”, behind the rather clumsy and stiff staging on state television by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Commander Sergei Surovikin.

This was intended to trap the advancing Ukrainian troops and entice them into a bloody house-to-house battle. However, such speculation was quickly dispelled over the course of Friday; And that was before the first photos of invading Ukrainian troops and blue and yellow flags circulated in central Kherson.

By blowing up the two already damaged Antonovsky bridges and a pontoon bridge in the northeast of the city, the Russians cut all fixed connections across the Dnipro River. Any ambush troops hidden in Kherson would have had to wage their final battle against the advancing Ukrainians with no prospect of withdrawal or possibilities of resupply.

Instead, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the “planned evacuation” of the western bank of the Dnipro on Friday morning.

According to ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, the last units were brought to safety on the left bank of the river at 5 a.m. “including technology and equipment and without losses”. Moscow estimated the number of transferred soldiers at 30,000.

Yesterday it was not yet possible to check whether nothing and nobody was left behind. Only photos of Russian mines lying around in heaps appeared on social networks; even from these pictures it was not clear whether they came from the Kherson area.

Russian stragglers in civilian clothes face death threats

For its part, Ukrainian military intelligence reported on Friday that Russia had left up to 20,000 soldiers on the western bank to cover the withdrawal of the remaining troops. In the report on its website, however, military intelligence referred to an interview by deputy intelligence chief Vadym Skibitski, which he had already given to Britain’s “Guardian” on Thursday.

Therefore, this information must also be handled with care. Nevertheless, Ukrainian military intelligence called on all Russian soldiers hiding in Kherson, perhaps disguised as civilians, to surrender.

This is the only way to escape otherwise certain death: “Your command left you at the mercy of fate. Your commanders urge you to put on civilian clothes and escape Kherson on your own accord. That you won’t succeed, of course,” said a call in Russian on social media.

Russia clings to its territorial claim

While Russian commentators mainly praised the flight from Kherson as a “regrouping” and a successful military retreat, the Kremlin emphasized its unbroken territorial claim to the eponymous city and oblast.

The Kherson region remains part of the Russian Federation, the Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday as saying:

Nor will there be an end to hostilities. “Kiev does not want talks, so the special military operation continues,” Peskov continued.

As if to emphasize this, Russia said it fired artillery into areas of the West Bank just vacated on Friday. A television spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Command said the country’s own troops had expected such a counterattack. (aargauerzeitung.ch)