- All key government agencies are located is there
Russia has announced that the Kherson Region’s temporary capital was established in Genichesk where key government agencies are headquartered, a local official, Alexander Fomin, told reporters on Saturday.
“Today, Genichesk where all key government agencies are located is a temporary administrative capital of the Kherson Region,” he said.
On February 27, the city was taken under control of the Russian Armed Forces. Genichesk is a port city on the Sea of Azov known for its resorts.
On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu ordered that Russian troops be pulled from the right bank of the Dnieper River back to the left bank.
The directive, he said, was based on a suggestion by Army General Sergey Surovikin, chief of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Surovikin pointed out that Russian troops were successfully thwarting Ukrainian attacks and one of the reasons for withdrawing was the risk that if areas downstream from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant got flooded, Russian forces would be isolated.
According to Surovikin, all civilians who wanted to leave the area — over 115, 000 people — have been relocated from the right bank.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced earlier on Friday that its forces have completed their partial withdrawal from the Kherson region, after Moscow ordered the retreat Wednesday,
“In the Kherson direction, the move of Russian military units to the left bank of the Dnieper River was completed at 0500 [Moscow time] this morning,” the ministry said on its official Telegram channel, using the Russian spelling for the river.
“Not a single piece of military equipment or weaponry was left behind on the right [west] bank,” the statement added. “All Russian servicemen have moved to the left bank of the Dnieper.”
But for Ukrainian forces who swept into the key city of Kherson on Friday as Russian troops retreated, it was huge victory as it delivered a major victory to Kyiv and marking one of the biggest setbacks for President Vladimir Putin since his invasion began.
Elated civilians who had survived months of Russian occupation descended on Kherson’s central square, hugging newly arrived Ukrainian soldiers, snapping selfies with them, and waving Ukrainian flags.
Footage of the jubilant scenes emerged hours after Russia announced it had withdrawn from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the strategic southern region of Kherson, leaving the regional capital of Kherson and surrounding areas to the Ukrainians.
For Ukrainian and their international supporters, the retreat represents a major blow for Putin’s war effort in Ukraine. Kherson was the only Ukrainian regional capital that Russian forces had captured since February’s invasion. Their withdrawal east across the Dnipro cedes large swathes of land that Russia has occupied since the early days of the war, and that Putin had formally declared as Russian territory just five weeks ago.
“The Ukrainian flag is raised in Kherson city. From now on, the Ukrainian flag will appear on all buildings in Kherson. This is what we have dreamed of from the first days of occupation,” said Serhiy Khlan, a member of Ukraine’s Kherson regional council.
On Friday evening, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a night-time video of celebrations in Kherson city, where a crowd was waving flags and chanting “ZSU,” the Ukrainian acronym for the armed forces.