The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it finished pulling out its troops from the western bank of the river that divides Ukraine's southern Kherson region.
Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian port city of Kherson
A Ukrainian regional official, Serhii Khlan, disputed the Russian Defense Ministry's claim that the retreating forces took all their equipment with them, saying he was told"a lot" of hardware got left behind. The Kremlin remained defiant Friday, insisting the withdrawal in no way represented an embarrassment for Putin. Moscow continues to view the entire Kherson region as part of Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Ukrainian officials were wary of the Russian pullback announced this week, fearing their soldiers could get drawn into an ambush in Kherson city, which had a prewar population of 280,000. Military analysts also had predicted it would take Russia's military at least a week to complete the troop withdrawal.Without referencing events unfolding in Kherson, Zelenskyy said in a video message thanking U.S. military personnel on Veterans Day that that"victory will be ours.
Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine a strong position from which to expand its southern counteroffensive to other Russian-occupied areas, potentially including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014. Mamontov said he found"nothing there" when he opened an apartment door to look for his mother after the missile struck. Friday was her 34th birthday, the teenager said.
The Russian Defense Ministry didn't acknowledge striking a residential building in Mykolaiv, saying only that an ammunition depot was destroyed"in the area of the city."
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