Zelensky pledges to keep up pressure after Kherson victory

Kherson  — Images on Tuesday appeared to show Russian troops had quit a town in Ukraine across the Dnipro River from Kherson, the city they surrendered last week, suggesting one of the war’s biggest retreats may not have ended at the water’s edge.

President Volodymyr Zelensky told world leaders there would be no let-up in Ukraine’s military campaign to drive Russian troops out of his country after last week’s victory in the only regional capital Russia captured in its invasion.

“We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation,” he said in an address by video link to the summit of the Group of 20 (G20) big economies in Indonesia.

“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped.”

Ukrainian forces mobbed by joyful residents swept into Kherson in recent days to claim the biggest prize of the war so far, a city that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proclaimed six weeks ago would be Russian forever.

Russia had said it was pulling its forces across the wide Dnipro River to more easily defended positions on the opposite bank. But in video filmed in the town of Oleshky, across a collapsed bridge over the Dnipro from Kherson, there was no sign of a Russian presence.

A driver sped down the deserted main road for kilometres without encountering a single Russian checkpoint or flag. Several bunkers along the road appeared to have been abandoned. The location of the video was confirmed by Reuters based on landmarks.

Ukraine’s military said overnight that it fired in enemy positions in Oleshky, but Ukrainian officials have not commented on images appearing to show Russian troops had withdrawn there.

Momentum

“Ukraine has the initiative and momentum, and is dictating to the Russians where and when the next fight will be,” said Philip Ingram, a former senior British military intelligence officer.

On Monday, Zelensky visited Kherson to celebrate the victory there, shaking hands with soldiers and waving to civilians. He said Ukraine found evidence of at least 400 war crimes committed by Russian troops in their eight month occupation, including killings and abductions.

Russia has being saying lately that it is focusing on eastern Ukraine, where it claims to have captured Pavlivka, a frontline village in Donetsk region. Kyiv says Russia suffered huge losses in assaults in the east with few gains.

The war was a central focus of the G20 summit, where Western leaders denounced Moscow. Russia is a member and Ukraine is not, but Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed home.

In his speech to the world leaders on the Indonesian island of Bali, Zelensky set out a peace proposal for Russia to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine, free all prisoners and reaffirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

He said he would extend indefinitely a programme to safeguard Ukrainian grain exports, and use the port of Mykolaiv beyond reach of Russian guns after the Kherson advance.

“Please choose your path for leadership, and together we will surely implement the peace formula,” he said.

The US wants the G20 to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine and its effect on the global economy, said a senior US official. Russia’s membership makes consensus on Ukraine unlikely. The official declined to say what form the condemnation would take.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, heading Russia’s delegation in Putin’s absence, accused the West of trying to politicise a declaration from the summit by including language condemning Russia’s actions in a draft declaration.

Abductions 

Moscow says it is waging a “special military operation” in Ukraine to protect Russian speakers. Ukraine and the West call it an unprovoked war of aggression.

Ukrainian officials said Kherson’s capture counters calls for it to cede land in any peace talks. “Ukrainian servicemen accept no talks, no agreements or compromise decisions,” commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram late on Monday after a telephone conversation with chair of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley.

Olga Fedorova, an English teacher in Kherson, said that without electricity or internet, many residents were unaware of events until Ukrainian troops raised their flag in the main square on November 11.

“We couldn’t believe, we still can’t believe that our Ukrainian army is here,” she said. “We have been waiting for them ... for eight-and-a-half months.”

People in and around Kherson have told of killings and abductions, including a neighbour shot dead and three accounts of people carried off by troops in the village of Blahodatne.

It was not possible to verify the accounts independently. Russia denies carrying out atrocities in occupied areas.

In Mykolaiv, a city of about 500,000 under Russian bombardment throughout the war, there was rejoicing that the Kherson advance had pushed Moscow’s guns beyond range.

In a crater-scarred district, history teacher and boxing coach Pavel Salohub said he had heard no explosions in four days, the first respite since the war began. “Everyone is happier. You can feel it. It’s the first thing everyone talks about,” he said.

Reuters