Residents of Kherson have greeted Ukrainian forces with joy as Russia announced its complete withdrawal from the important southern city.
Locals were captured on camera waving the Ukrainian flag and yelling as the troops from Kyiv arrived.
Around a sizable campfire, some people sang nationalistic songs into the night.
Following the invasion in February, Russia only captured Kherson as its regional capital. One of its major losses during the conflict was the withdrawal, according to observers.
Moscow claimed that 30,000 people had left the area, along with about 5,000 weapons, military equipment, and other resources.
The White House welcomed the outcome as an “amazing win,” and the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, referred to it as “a historic day.”
The “battle goes on,” though, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister. Dmytro Kuleba said this while speaking in Cambodia on the sidelines of a summit: “Everyone wants this war to end as soon as possible, and I get that. Without a doubt, we want that more than anyone else.”
According to a Friday evening statement from the Ukrainian side, troops had advanced as far as the western bank of the Dnipro river.
Images also showed that the Antonivsky Bridge, the key river crossing, had largely fallen. It is still unknown what caused the damage.
It is believed that the Russian troops that took Kherson are moving to new locations on the eastern bank of the river.
The city’s shift of control came after a quick counteroffensive by Ukraine in recent months, during which Kyiv claimed to have retaken 41 localities close to Kherson.
President Zelensky stated that the people of Kherson “were waiting” and “never gave up on Ukraine” in his evening address.
Residents, he continued, had been laboring to clear the streets of “any remnants of the occupiers’ stay,” including Russian symbols.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman denied that the action was a humiliating loss in the meanwhile.
Damage to a bridge going out of Kherson has been seen in satellite images from the company Maxar Technologies, albeit it is unclear what caused this.
After holding phony “referendums” in four of its occupied provinces in east and south Ukraine, the Kremlin has been treating Kherson and the surrounding area as its territory for several weeks.
Despite the widespread worldwide condemnation of these ballots, Ukraine persisted in its attempts to reclaim the impacted territory.
The commander of Russia in Ukraine declared on Wednesday that the city could no longer be supplied, signaling the country’s withdrawal from Kherson.
On Thursday, Ukraine claimed advances of up to 7 kilometers on two axes as its troops advanced, even though there was a scant indication of any Russian withdrawal.
On Friday, things advanced swiftly as well. Locals were the first to announce that the Russians had fled Kherson.
Crowds of residents waving flags were later captured on camera cheering on the Ukrainian military at Freedom Square while yelling, “Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine!”
“No one is going to sleep tonight,” Alexei Sandakov said on Friday afternoon, appearing to still be adjusting to the new circumstances on the ground.
Additionally, Ukrainian transmissions were reconnected to Kherson’s local television station.
Despite criticism from pro-war bloggers on social media, officials in Russia have downplayed the withdrawal from Kherson and described it as a “redeployment.”
The military announced on Wednesday that Russian forces were withdrawing from the city they had taken almost unopposed in the early stages of the battle, but Mr. Putin was conspicuously absent.
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