Russian Kherson Withdrawal: Trap? Or Necessary Chess Move? (TheNewAtlas)

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has announced the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson city to the east bank of the Dnieper River.

This was alluded to 3 weeks ago by General Sergey Surovikin and for the purpose of weathering Ukraine’s all-or-nothing offensive while preserving Russian manpower and equipment.

While Russian forces have successfully defended the city until now, even the slightest possibility of Ukrainian forces overwhelming Russian troops on the wrong side of the river would result in a defeat of historic proportions. Russia has now eliminated that possibility.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue dismantling Ukraine’s national power grid, its air defense network, and what remains of its overstretched forces.

Ukraine fights for today’s headlines, Russia is fighting to win the long war.



We heard recently that the Russians had moved troops into the area, and built fortifications. Is this a trap? Very soon the ground will freeze and one of the likely objectives of a Russian offensive will be Odessa. Moving troops to the other side of the river will make such an advance, even at a later time, difficult. How many troops can Ukraine marshal to take this area anyway? They lost tens of thousands of soldiers over the last few months. Not enough has changed for them to succeed with similar attacks.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, November 11, 2022.]