Russia ‘withdraws officers from Kherson’ ahead of expected Ukrainian advance

Russia’s military leadership has reportedly withdrawn its officers in the Russian-annexed city of Kherson across the Dnieper River in anticipation of an advance by Ukrainian troops.

A soldier looks at a school that was destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian occupying forces

To delay the Ukrainian counter-offensive as the Russians complete their retreat, Moscow has left newly mobilised, inexperienced forces on the other side of the wide river, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) claimed.

The troop movements come as the Ukrainian military said its forces have continued their counter-offensives in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

On Saturday, Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all Kherson residents to leave immediately ahead of the expected action by Ukrainian troops to take back the city.

Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the eight-month war in Ukraine. The city is the capital of a region of the same name, one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday.

On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the province, targeting pro-Kremlin forces’ resupply routes across the Dnieper River and preparing for a final push to reclaim the city.

The ISW think tank also said that Russia’s latest war strategy of targeting power plants in recent days appears to be aimed at diminishing Ukrainians’ will to fight and forcing Ukraine’s government to spend additional resources to protect civilians and energy infrastructure.

It said the effort was unlikely to damage Ukrainian morale but would have a significant economic impact.

The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russian forces are now mostly on the defensive but are keeping up offensive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and on several towns in the eastern Donbas area.

Nine regions across Ukraine, from Odesa in the south west to Kharkiv in the north east, saw attacks again targeting energy and other critical infrastructure over the past day, the Ukrainian general staff said.

It reported a total of 25 Russian air strikes and more than 100 missile and artillery strikes around Ukraine.

Ukrainian counter-offensive forces in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions targeted Russian-held facilities, notably in the town of Nova Kakhovka, and carried out 17 air strikes in the overall campaign, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

In a Telegram post on Sunday, the Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed 14 Iranian-made Russian drones over the past day.

Russian S-300 missile strikes overnight hit a residential neighbourhood in the city of Mykolaiv, injuring three people, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command.

Two apartment buildings, a playground and a warehouse were damaged or destroyed, it said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security service said it has detained the long-time chief of a major aircraft engine factory, accusing him of collaborating with Russia by supplying military equipment for Russian attack aircraft.

Viacheslav Bohuslaiev, president of the Motor Sich plant in Zaporizhzhia, and another top factory official were charged with collaboration and “assisting the aggressor state”.

The Ukrainian security service SBU said that the two are accused of colluding with a Russian arms maker close to the Kremlin to supply Ukrainian-made engines and spare parts to Russian forces.