Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Russia will be sweating over its withdrawal from Kherson

Almost everyone has known that the city of Kherson, stranded on the right bank of the Dnipro River, was all but indefensible. Now it looks as if the one man who, like Canute was setting himself against the tide, has finally acknowledged that: Vladimir Putin has let his generals withdraw. This could conceivably be some cunning ruse, but the odds on this are lengthening.

Putin, though always willing to let his henchmen hurl themselves on grenades in his name, was happy not to be visibly connected with the decision. Instead, in a piece of awkward uniformed theatre, overall field commander General Sergei Surovikin, recommended ‘to assume defence along the left bank’ of the river, citing the need to minimise civilian casualties and to preserve ‘the combat capability of the group of forces’.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu sombrely ordered him to ‘start withdrawing the troops and take all measures to ensure the safe relocation of the personnel, armaments and hardware behind the Dnipro,’ as if this had not been decided in the Kremlin rather than there in the command post of the so-called Unified Group of Forces in the Zone of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.

This way, the inevitable anger of the nationalists will be directed at Shoigu and Surovikin, redoubled if this goes badly. After all, it seems to be the lot of Russia’s senior military figures these days to be Putin’s flak vest. The commander-in-chief, the man who just at the end of September announced that ‘residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson are becoming our citizens forever,’ was conspicuously absent.

This is a military defeat, but not necessarily a decisive one. Much will depend on how far the Russians can manage an orderly retreat rather than a rout.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in