KHERSON, Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers worked to defend the city of Kherson on Saturday and battle Russian forces in the suburbs, the military said, a day after Ukrainian special forces entered the country. southern port city to the enthusiastic cheers of residents who had endured months of Russian occupation.
Despite Russia’s withdrawal, Ukraine’s military intelligence service said on Saturday that Russian troops remained in fixed defensive positions and it was unclear whether they would fight, flee or surrender.
As Ukrainian forces entered the city, the severity of the humanitarian crisis, including the lack of water and electricity, became apparent. However, on the second day, people poured into the streets to celebrate.
The jubilant sounds of cheers and car horns mingled with the occasional explosion from incoming artillery on the outskirts of the city. The military also said Ukrainian forces were clearing landmines left behind by departing Russian forces, and looking for any Russian soldiers who might be hiding in abandoned houses.
As night fell and the city was plunged into darkness, blacked out by power cables blown up in the skirmish, a party kicking off Friday in the city’s central square took place.
Ukrainian songs banned during the occupation were played by a speaker. People cheered and sang along, dancing to the light of car headlights and flashlights. Couples hug and sway to a slow song by Ukrainian band Oceans of Elza, marking a glimmer of hope for an unending war.
Kherson, an urban center with a pre-war population in the hundreds of thousands, had virtually no heating, water, electricity, medicine, or cell phone service. One Ukrainian official called it a “humanitarian disaster”. And on Saturday, reports of an explosion at a key dam about 40 miles northeast cast a shadow over the growing celebration.
Looming to the east was the formation of Russian forces and their artillery, most of which remained intact from their very recent, very public retreat. Kremlin-installed officials who occupied Kherson on Saturday announced that they had established a new administrative capital in a seaside resort town, Henichesk, some 110 miles behind the room. Russian line.
The abrupt change, prompted by Russia’s crushing defeat on the battlefield, came less than a month and a half after Moscow moved to annex the region, with the capital city of Kherson.
City dwellers are still dealing with Saturday’s fast-paced events. Just a day earlier, they had hidden their Ukrainian flags from Russian soldiers. Now they wrap themselves in the blue and yellow of the flag and hug Ukrainian soldiers in the streets.
Serhiy, a retiree who asked his surname not to be released for security reasons, said: “People were walking in the street and congratulating each other. “It’s just a vacation!”
A Ukrainian special forces soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, described the moment as a burst of emotion. He said he is thinking about how much work has been done in the past eight months to make the events of the past two days happen, and how many soldiers have died in the process.
Another Ukrainian army soldier, a foreign volunteer, said their arrival in the city was like “Paris, 1944.”
In the midst of the celebrations, however, the staggering scale of the humanitarian crisis in the region is in focus on Saturday. Many people in Kherson have no heat, electricity or running water. Food and medicine are in short supply. Ukrainian military officials say the city is not yet safe for a large-scale humanitarian relief effort.
Adding to the growing list of humanitarian concerns, Kremlin-linked Russian news agencies released a video on Saturday purporting to show a massive explosion in the area of the plant. Kakhivska hydroelectric power station, part of the Kakhova dam complex about 40 miles northeast. by Kherson.
What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What is their motivation to tell us? Have they proven reliable in the past? Can we verify the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times still uses anonymous sources as a last resort. Reporters and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
It is not clear when the explosion occurred, but locals said they heard a loud bang on Friday afternoon.
Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, expressed cautious optimism on Saturday about Russia’s withdrawal from the United States. Kherson, calling it a “big moment” for Ukrainian forces. He also reiterated that the Biden administration will not push for an end to the war diplomatically.
The rift in the US government spilled into public view This week as General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began pressing Ukrainian forces to consider leveraging their momentum by negotiating an end to the fighting before the season. winter comes. Mr. Biden’s advisers, including Mr. Sullivan, have publicly rejected any suggestion that they should pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to cede territory to Russian invaders.
“Ukraine is the peaceful side in this conflict and Russia is the warring party,” Mr. “Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chooses to cease the war in Ukraine and leave, that will be the end of the war. If Ukraine chooses to stop fighting and give up, that will be the end of Ukraine.”
He said that what happened in Kherson has not changed the administration’s position, in part because Moscow continues to make statements about annexing the territory.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army’s Southern Command, said that a number of Russian troops in and around Kherson were still actively fighting with Ukrainian forces. There are also reports of Russian soldiers surrendering to the Ukrainians or changing into civilian clothes and hiding in apartments, she said.
“How many forgotten soldiers are left, it is difficult to say at this point,” she said in an interview with Freedom TV, a Russian-language channel in Ukraine that broadcasts abroad.
She added that Ukrainian forces were “very close” from Russian forces consolidating positions on the other side of the Dnipro, making them vulnerable to artillery fire. The Ukrainian military also reported fighting in towns and villages outside Kherson, including around the endangered dam in the city of Nova Kakhovka.
As the winter months quickly pass, military analysts are divided over the fate of the war and whether Ukrainian forces can continue to recapture the territory despite the logistical difficulties that come with the weather. cold or not.
The Russians continue to mount a well-choreographed air campaign against Ukraine’s energy grid, crippling vital services across the country. In the mineral-rich Donbas region, Russian forces have retreated, building belts of earth fortifications following their defeat in the northeast in September, although in some areas they are still attacking.
However, joy was mixed with anxiety about the Russian army, which had already retreated but was still within artillery range.
Colonel Roman Kostenko, a member of parliament serving in the Ukrainian army, said the risk of a retaliatory bombardment of Kherson was very high. “They will besiege the city,” he said.
Rybar, an influential Russian pro-war military blog, posted a video that was published by the Russian newspaper site iz.ru and announced that Russian forces on Friday attacked the Kakhova dam complex. Other Russian news agencies blame the Ukrainians.
The road over the dam, in the town of Nova Kakhovka, is the last remaining main road for Russian forces in the area. It is also an important piece of infrastructure that retains a body of water the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
For weeks, the Ukrainians and the Russians warned that the other side would try to sabotage the dam. However, military analysts have said that destroying it would benefit neither side, as doing so would affect the armies of both sides, which are currently on opposite banks of the Dnipro River.
Satellite images show that the area around the dam was damaged between Thursday and Friday, as Russian forces retreated.
As Russia’s position has become more precarious recently, Moscow has accused Ukraine of planning to destroy the dam – a claim that Ukraine and its Western allies reject as absurd.
Kyiv has said it has no incentive to flood its land and that Russia’s allegations, made without evidence, are a sign that Moscow is preparing a “false flag” operation to self-defence. burst the dam, potentially flooding 80 towns, villages and cities, including Kherson.
“Russia is laying the groundwork for a large-scale disaster in southern Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a speech to the European Council last month.
Andrew E. Kramer reporting from Kherson, Ukraine, Marc Santora from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Katie Rogers from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Report contributed by Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Wakefield, Rhode Island, Maria Varennikova and Anna Lukinova in Kyiv and Christiaan Triebert in New York.
