Russian military reporters in the northern part of the Kherson region said there has been a withdrawal in some areas after what was described as “massive enemy strikes.”
A prominent Russian Telegram channel reported “there was a withdrawal to back up positions,” near the town of Snihurivka, which is in neighboring Mykolaiv region.
“A bridge was also blown up by our forces in this area today,” according to the channel RVVoenkor, which has more than 1 million subscribers.
“Ukrainian sources published a photo with the raising of their flag at the Snihurivka railway station. The settlement is under their control,” it said.
CNN has geolocated the photograph of the flag on a tower in Snihurivka.
The channel also said that the Ukrainians had entered the nearby village of Kalynivske and that “the front line is steadily moving towards Kherson.”
Separately, another Russian military reporter, Alexander Kots, said on Telegram: “This morning, after seeing that the Russian flags had disappeared from the administrative buildings in Kherson and receiving several urgent recommendations to cross to the east bank, we decided to take two more flags with us to the ferry. So that those who would mock our state symbols would not get them.”
“One was taken from the flagpole at the City Council…..I’ll keep the state flag until we come back. So I can hang it up again,” Kots added.
What Ukraine said earlier: Serhii Khlan, a member of the Ukrainian Kherson Regional Council, said that Russian forces appeared to be staging a tactical retreat from some frontline villages and blowing up bridges.
“The occupiers blew up not only Dariivskyi and Tiahynskyi bridges, they also blew up the bridge at the exit from Snihurivka towards Kherson across the canal,” Khlan said during a press conference. “They blew up the bridge in Novokairy, blew up the bridge in Mylove.”
“The occupiers are now blowing up absolutely all bridges” in the occupied Kherson region west of the Dnipro River, he said.
Images and reports from Russian propagandists and military analysts on Telegram appear to corroborate those claims.
On Snihurivka, Khlan said: “As I understand, the occupiers are reinforcing [fortifications] in order to ensure the withdrawal of their units from the front line. We can say that under the onslaught of our Armed Forces, the occupiers are preparing and doing everything possible to make it look like a planned retreat from the front line, rather than an absolute failure of the front,” he said.
