But neither he nor his men think the Russians will go quickly or quietly and nor do they intend to let them.
“If we leave Kherson, it will be a huge blow,” he added, in comments broadcast by Russia’s RT television. Crimea is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet and Kyiv has made the peninsula’s recovery its sworn goal. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared the Russians already had begun “an organized, phased withdrawal” from the Dnipro’s west bank.Thousands of civilians from the city and surrounding areas have been evacuated to the east side of the Dnipro in recent weeks after Russian-appointed occupation authorities warned of the dangers posed by Ukrainian advances.
Some Ukrainian soldiers believe the poorly trained Russian reservists are being sent forward “like lambs to the slaughter”, while more experienced troops are digging into defensive lines further back, according to the US official.