Live: Ukraine cautious after Russia announces retreat from Kherson

Issued on: 10/11/2022 – 07:57Modified: 10/11/2022 – 08:06

7:45am: More than 100,000 Russian military casualties in Ukraine, top US general says

More than 100,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded in Ukraine, with Kyiv’s forces likely suffering similar casualties, top US General Mark Milley said Wednesday.

“You’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded,” Milley said in remarks at the Economic Club of New York. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.”

7:31am: Zelensky says Ukraine moving ‘very carefully’ after Russia announces Kherson pull-out 

Ukraine on Wednesday cautioned against considering Russia’s announced plan to retreat from Kherson, a gateway to Russian-occupied Crimea, and nearby areas as a done deal, noting some Russian forces remained in Kherson and reinforcements were being sent to the region.

“They are moving out but not as much as would be taking place if it was a full pull-out or regrouping,” Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a video posted online on Wednesday night.

Russian forces were destroying bridges as they left and mining roads, Arestovych said.

“For the moment, we don’t know their intentions – will they engage in fighting with us and will they try to hold the city of Kherson? They are moving very slowly,” he said.

Zelensky said Wednesday Ukraine was moving “very carefully” after Russia announced it was pulling out of Kherson.

“The enemy does not give us gifts, does not make ‘goodwill gestures’, we win it all,” Zelensky said in his daily address.”Therefore, we are moving very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk, in the interests of liberating all our land and so that the losses are as small as possible.”

Russian forces captured Kherson early in their invasion, which began February 24. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday announced that Moscow’s forces would retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River near the city.

Kyiv’s forces have zeroed in on Kherson, whose prewar population was 280,000, and cut off supply lines in recent weeks as part of a larger counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine that has pushed Russian troops out of wide swaths of territory.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)