In Quiet Sign of Triumph, Zelensky Forms Military Administrations in Kherson Region

Nearly as soon as the announcement was made of a Russian retreat from Kherson, the only major city in the Ukrainian heartland it managed to capture in its eight-month-old-war, President Zelensky signed a decree establishing a series of military administrations in the region. Although Ukraine has expressed some skepticism as to Moscow’s true intentions, and the risk of more combat at Kherson is far from zero, the move represents another humiliating setback for Russia and a major strategic pivot in Ukraine’s favor ahead of the onset of winter. While Mr. Zelensky has said it is too soon to take a victory lap, pending any imminent surprises on the Russian side this is a clear if not wholly unanticipated welcome development for Ukraine, especially now. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine’s military offensive against Russian forces in the south “has slowed as both sides tire after weeks of fighting and as muddy ground in some areas makes advancing difficult for armored vehicles.” Yet that flagging energy has been paired with a steady and coordinated retreat of both Russian troops and civilians from Kherson in recent weeks.It was Russian exhaustion that was clearly on display Wednesday when the country’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Russian television that it was no longer possible to keep supply lines to Kherson open and that defense of the city would now be “futile.” In the same broadcast, a hard-nosed Russian general, Sergei Surovikin, admitted that 115,000 people had already been relocated because their “lives are constantly in danger,” and he inferred that a full military retreat to the opposite bank of the strategic Dnieper River from where Kherson is situated would take place “in the near future.”For Mr. Zelensky, the future appears to be now. Earlier this week he extended Ukraine’s state of martial law for an additional three months. With Russia and Ukraine still in an active state of war, the president is well aware that Ukraine is not out of the woods yet. The decree that he signed on November 9, though, appears to capitalize on the new momentum. He ordered the creation of four discrete village and city military administrations in the Skadovsk and Kakhovka districts of the Kherson region. If nothing else, those are four warning shots to Vladimir Putin, who in late September illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.According to the AP, Kherson’s Ukrainian-appointed governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, called on residents “not to give in to euphoria” just yet. Another Ukrainian-appointed Kherson regional official, Serhii Khlan, told reporters that Russian forces had blown up five bridges to slow Kyiv’s forces. Still, it does appear that Ukraine is in it to win it, and will do so by means both military and behind-the-scenes. The reason those Russian supply lines cited by Mr. Shoigu are now closed is because Ukrainian forces have in recent weeks been very capably cutting them off as part of a larger counteroffensive across eastern and southern Ukraine. It also appears that whatever Russian interlopers remain in Kherson are either gearing up to leave, with active Kremlin assent, or staying put at great risk to their lives and personal safety. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Russian-installed deputy governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a car crash that occurred Wednesday on a road between Kherson city and Armyansk, a town to the southeast in Russian-annexed Crimea. Stremousov, 45, appeared on a stage with Mr. Putin at an annexation ceremony at Moscow in September. It was not immediately clear if the car crash was accidental, but several Russian-installed officials in Ukraine have fallen victim to saboteurs. Russia cannot supply replacements for lost officials or troops indefinitely, and the losses are mounting. On Wednesday the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said that “well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine so far, and “same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.” Mr. Milley added that there has been “a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering.”It is too soon to know whether that suffering will diminish or what the news from Kherson and Moscow could truly portend, but intrigue grows. Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdogan, who has positioned himself as an unofficial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv, hailed Russia’s announcement of a troop withdrawal from Kherson. “The latest decision of the Russian side on Kherson is a positive moment, a significant decision,” Mr. Erdogan said at a press conference at Ankara. There has also been speculation in some European media, notably the Italian press, that once Ukraine regains its hold on Kherson it could be in a stronger negotiating position vis á vis the Kremlin. Mr. Zelensky, though, will likely seek to recapture more territory before initiating any kind of dialogue with Moscow, even if some allies are prodding him to do so. Because for the moment at least, it looks like Ukraine is on a roll.

In Quiet Sign of Triumph, Zelensky Forms Military Administrations in Kherson Region

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