Posted on 11/03/2022 11:46:03 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
A Russian-installed occupation official in southern Ukraine said on Thursday Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, signalling a huge retreat that, if confirmed, would be a major turning point in the war.
Still, Ukrainian officials and Western analysts remained cautious about signs that Russia was abandoning the area, and there was silence from higher-ups in Moscow over what would amount to one of Russia's most humiliating retreats so far.
Kyiv said it was still fighting in the area and was wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a pull-out.
"Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left (eastern) bank," Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, said in an interview with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.
The area includes Kherson city, capital of the region of the same name, and the only major city Russia has captured intact since its invasion in February. It also includes one side of a huge dam across the Dnipro which controls the water supply to irrigate Crimea, the peninsula Russia has occupied since 2014.
Previously, Russia had vehemently denied its forces were planning to withdraw from the area, one of the most important new conquests which President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed to Russia at the end of September.
Speculation swirled on Thursday over whether Russia was indeed pulling out, after photos circulated on the internet showing the main administrative building in Kherson city with Russia's flag no longer flying atop it. Ukraine said those images could be Russian disinformation.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
“wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a pull-out”
I’d be very surprised, since Russia has so far not shown this level of strategic competence.
Relax comrade, everything is going to plan! In three days, Putin will be toasting Shoigu in a cafe in Kiev.
“I drove around Kherson. I don’t know why the Russian flag disappeared over the former government building of the Kherson region, but this is not a systemic phenomenon. Tricolors hang over other administrative buildings and educational institutions.”
https://t.me/epoddubny/13499
‘HER UKRAINE PROPAGANDA MOCKED INTO OBLIVION’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQfWq6t2YL0
Those look like they would make one helluva deer blind, but would be a real Pelosi to get them into the woods...
Video of the pill boxes being hauled on Russian trucks to their destinations.
https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1587353534122582016
That should get the alko-mobiks pumped up. Those boxes are probably more spacious and luxuriously appointed than their zemlyankas back home. A great place to relax, unwind, get drunk, bugger each other and die...
Chernivtsi = Chernovitsy
Dnipro River = Dnieper River
Kharkiv = Kharkov
Kyiv = Kiev
Lutsk = Łuck
Lviv = Lvov
Ternópil = Tarnopol
Toretsk = Dzerzhynsk
Zhytomyr = Zhitomir
and so on.
Who is with me?
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