Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is reported on Wednesday to have ordered his Russian forces to leave the city of Kherson in eastern Ukraine and retreat to the eastern bank of the Dnerp River.
- It is not particularly surprising.
We have seen for several weeks, if not months, that the Ukrainian forces are making progress towards Kherson, which is the largest and most important city that Russia captured during the war, says Bert Sundström.
Bert Sundström describes the alleged retreat as "a setback, perhaps the most serious so far" for Russia since the war in Ukraine broke out in February.
- It shows that the Russian forces in the occupied parts are not up to the task that the military leadership and the Kremlin thought they would handle quite easily.
"Can't do anything else"
The city is the only regional capital Russia has so far captured during the war, and is described as strategically important as the Kherson region forms a land bridge from Russia to the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.
- I would think that it will come right now because it turns out that now the supply lines across the river to the Russian soldiers are so thinned and fragile that it is actually not possible to do anything else, says Bert Sundström.
A Ukrainian military analyst told the Reuters news agency that Ukrainian forces are using US-supplied Himars missiles to destroy Russian supply lines across the Dnieper River.
Ukraine skeptical
Ukraine is skeptical of the Russian retreat announcement and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the Ukrainian forces are "moving carefully" and "not taking any unnecessary risks".
- You cannot trust anything that is said from the official side in Russia.
A lot are pure lies and what you hear from Ukraine is that "here it is important to take it carefully, not to be deceived and advance too quickly", says Bert Sundström.
He does not believe that the alleged retreat affects Putin's position in Russia "in a decisive way".
- But there is a widespread mistrust of what the Kremlin presents as its image of reality.
Somehow this will weaken his position somewhat.
How is the Russian media reporting on the Russian withdrawal from Kherson? Hear Bert Sundström tell in the clip above.