While we're waiting on vote counts to be finalized here in the US, in Ukraine, Putin and the Russian Army have retreated from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Well, maybe.
Russia announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing forces from Kherson, a key city in southern Ukraine, in what could turn out to be the most humiliating setback in President Vladimir Putin’s war.
Ukrainian officials remained cautious about the Russian forces’ intentions with some suggesting on social media that it was a trick but in televised comments, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said he was ordering the withdrawal of troops across the Dnieper River.
Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, proposed taking up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the river.
The announcement of the withdrawal followed weeks of Ukrainian advances toward the city and a race by Russia to relocate more than 100,000 of its residents.
“We will save the lives of our soldiers and fighting capacity of our units. Keeping them on the right (western) bank is futile. Some of them can be used on other fronts,” Surovikin said.
Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the move and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that the Russians were laying a trap pullout from Kherson in order to lure Ukrainian forces into battle.
Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also expressed skepticism over Russia's announcement.
If Ukraine wins in Kherson it could put the Zelenskyy government in a better position to negotiate, U.S. and Western officials have told NBC News. But, they added, it could also discourage Russia from coming to the table if Putin believes he’s not negotiating from a position of strength.
The announced Russian withdrawal from Kherson, which is in a region of the same name, came after Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were deliberately blowing up bridges around the city — the only regional capital to be captured by Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24.
“The occupiers are currently undermining absolutely all the bridges on the right bank of the Kherson region,” Serhii Khlan, the deputy head of Kherson’s regional council, said in a Telegram post.
If this is a trap somehow, it's not a very good one. I'm no War College graduate, but even I know that while announcing a retreat and then milling about smartly hoping that a bunch of The Enemy happily come to you so you can enfilade the bejesus out of them is not the best plan. It may have been effective before satellites and drones, but even ancient armies did recon to check out the situation before committing the bulk of troops.
I think The Boys are a bit smarter than that.
We'll see.
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