Ukraine updates: Russia orders troops to leave Kherson city

Russian President Vladimir Putin has posthumously decorated Kirill Stremousov with the Order of Courage, a top state award, the Kremlin has said.

Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-appointed administration in the occupied Kherson region, was killed in a car crash earlier Wednesday. A decree from Putin’s office said Stremousov was awarded for “courage and valour shown in the line of duty”.

Stremousov was a highly visible face on social media, pumping out pro-Moscow statements. In the most recent hours before his death, he denounced what he called Ukrainian “Nazis” and said the Russian military was in “full control” of the situation in the south.

Russia on Wednesday ordered its troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson – a significant retreat and potential turning point in the war.

Kherson city was the only regional capital Russia had captured since its invasion in February and the abandonment of such a strategic prize would be a significant setback for what Moscow terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Here is more about Russia’s occupation of Kherson city in photos.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan will meet with Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin on Friday to discuss extending the Black Sea grain initiative, according to Reuters.

Griffiths leads talks on Ukrainian exports, while Grynspan heads discussions on Russian food and fertiliser exports.

“It is hoped that the discussions will advance progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilisers originating from the Russian Federation to the global markets,” a UN spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered his troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson, a significant retreat and potential turning point in the war.

Prior to the Wednesday order, Kyiv’s forces had made significant advances in recent weeks through Kherson province or oblast, the gateway to the Crimea Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

Here is a timeline of key developments in Kherson.

Senior United Nations officials plan to meet members of a high-level Russian delegation in Geneva on Friday to discuss the Ukraine grain deal, a UN spokesperson has said.

“They will continue ongoing consultations in support of the efforts by the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the full implementation of the two agreements signed on 22 July in Istanbul,” the spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu has ordered troops to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, which Kyiv’s forces have been advancing on for weeks.

“Begin to pull out troops,” Shoigu told a televised meeting with Russia’s commander in Ukraine, Sergey Surovikin, on Wednesday.

Here is a look at what the announcement might mean for the war in Ukraine.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has denied that the Republicans’ advance in US midterm elections would undermine Western military backing for Ukraine.

“It’s absolutely clear that there is strong bipartisan support in the United States for continued support for Ukraine,” he told reporters.

“That has not changed with the elections that have taken place in the United States.”

The US Congress committed $40bn for Ukraine in May with support across party lines as Kyiv fights back against Russian invaders.

But Republican Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to become House of Representatives speaker, warned last month there would be no “blank cheque” for Ukraine if his party regains control.

Ukraine enjoys backing from much of the Republican base, although hard-right lawmakers close to former President Donald Trump have voiced criticism of the US support.

Ukraine has said Russia’s destruction of civilian infrastructure would widen the expected contraction of gross domestic production (GDP) to 39 percent from an earlier forecast calling for a 35 percent drop.

Ukrainian economy minister Yulia Syvrydenko told reporters the government was taking steps to reduce its size. This would include staff reduction, as well as seeking a year-long extension on the suspension of US tariffs on steel.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said it was “encouraging” to see Ukrainian forces being able to liberate more of the country’s territory, after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered his troops to withdraw from Kherson.

Speaking in London, where he was meeting UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Stoltenberg said: “The victories, the gains the Ukrainian armed forces are making belongs to the brave, courageous Ukrainian soldiers but of course, the support they receive from the United Kingdom, from NATO allies and partners is also essential.”

Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions Putin proclaimed in September he was incorporating into Russia “forever” after a referendum that was condemned as illegal by Ukraine and its allies.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it was expelling an employee of the Moldovan embassy in Moscow.

The ministry said the move was in response to the “unmotivated” designation of an employee of Russia’s embassy in Moldova as a persona non grata on November 1.

Russia and Moldova have been involved in a tit-for-tat since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Like Ukraine, tiny Moldova is a former part of the Soviet Union with a pro-Western government.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have flooded into the country since Russia sent troops into Ukraine.

Moldova was along with Ukraine granted candidate status by the European Union in a show of support in the face of Russia’s offensive.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said Russian President Vladimir Putin made “several huge mistakes” when he invaded Ukraine.

“President Putin made several huge mistakes when he invaded Ukraine, strategic mistakes,” Stoltenberg told reporters while on a visit to the United Kingdom.

“One was to underestimate the Ukrainians – their courage, their commitment to fight and protect their country … The other mistake he made was to underestimate NATO allies, partners, in our ability to support Ukraine,” he said.

A senior adviser to Ukraine’s president has said it is too early to talk about a Russian troop withdrawal from the southern city of Kherson.

“Until the Ukrainian flag is flying over Kherson, it makes no sense to talk about a Russian withdrawal,” Mykhailo Podolyak told the Reuters news agency.

Podolyak said some of Moscow’s troops remained in the region and alleged that Russian commanders were pouring in additional manpower in the face of a continuing Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukraine’s southern Kherson region borders Crimea and provides Moscow with a land bridge to the Black Sea peninsula that it seized from Kyiv in 2014.

If Kyiv’s forces, who are counterattacking in the region, are able to retake swaths of territory there, it would deprive Russia of that land corridor. Such battlefield success would also bring long-range Ukrainian artillery closer to Crimea, which Moscow sees as vitally important to its interests.

Fresh water supply to Crimea would also be imperilled if Ukraine were to retake the partly occupied Kherson region.

Russia needs that water for the local population, the irrigation of the peninsula’s arid land and for numerous military facilities.

Furthermore, the Kherson region, which had a pre-war population of more than one million, lies on the Black Sea and recapturing it would help Kyiv wrest back control of some of its coastline. The Black Sea is a critical artery for Ukrainian food exports to foreign markets.

Russia’s influential war bloggers have lamented Moscow’s move to withdraw forces from the city of Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow had captured since launching its invasion.

“Apparently we will leave the city, no matter how painful it is to write about it now,” the War Gonzo blog, which has more than 1.3 million subscribers on Telegram, said.

“In simple terms, Kherson can’t be held with bare hands,” it said. “Yes, this is a black page in the history of the Russian army. Of the Russian state. A tragic page.”

Russia’s defence minister has ordered the country’s troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson.

Sergei Shoigu’s announcement marked one of Russia’s most significant retreats since it launched its offensive in late February.

In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, said it was no longer possible to supply Kherson city. He said he proposed to take up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the river.

“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.

The news followed weeks of Ukrainian advances towards Kherson and a race by Russia to evacuate the city’s residents.

As the US reportedly tries to nudge Kyiv towards talks, everyday Ukrainians say the fight must go on since Russia is an unreliable negotiator.

A poll conducted in late October showed that 86 percent of Ukrainians insist their nation should keep fighting instead of holding discussions with Moscow.

Read more here.

The head of the self-proclaimed, breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine has paid tribute to Kirill Stremousov following reports the Russian-installed official was killed in a car crash.

Denis Pushilin described Stremousov, the Moscow-backed deputy governor of Ukraine’s partly-occupied Kherson region, as a “courageous fighter for justice, for truth, [and] for the Russian people”.

“He led the people’s movement towards the Kherson region becoming a subject of the Russian Federation, and did a lot to ensure that Kherson returned to its native harbor,” Pushilin said in a Telegram post.

Russia announced the annexation of Kherson, Donetsk and two other partly occupied Ukrainian regions – Luhansk and Zaporizhia – in September following highly controversial referendums dismissed as illegal “shams” by Kyiv and its Western allies.

Actor Sean Penn, who is making a documentary about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has loaned one of his two Oscars to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him, “When you win, bring it back to Malibu.”

Zelenskyy’s office on Wednesday released the video of the encounter during Penn’s most recent visit to Ukraine, his third since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24. It was not clear when the encounter occurred.

Penn, who has been involved in numerous international humanitarian and anti-war efforts over the years, told Zelenskyy that every time he leaves Ukraine, “I feel like a traitor.”

“But if I know this is here with you then I will feel better and stronger for the fights,” Penn said as he pulled the statuette from a black bag and placed it on a table in front of Zelenskyy. “When you win, bring it back to Malibu. Because I feel much better knowing there is a piece of me here.”

Moscow has occasional contact with US officials from time to time despite the downturn in relations between the two sides, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry has said.

Maria Zakharova said such contacts were between specific unnamed government agencies in both countries. She said the Russian foreign ministry had not been involved.

Zakharova also confirmed there would soon be US-Russia consultations on the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, the last remaining arms control agreement between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

Russia has published a list of companies in which President Vladimir Putin has restricted the buying and selling of shares by foreign investors, including Unipro and the local subsidiary of Finnish energy group Fortum.

The list includes 191 companies in the fuel and energy complex, as well as equipment makers and servicing companies.