Ukraine troops enter centre of Kherson as Russians retreat in chaos

A crowd of residents, some tearful, earlier raised Ukrainian flags around the central Svoboda Square, and gathered to greet the first troops to reach the city centre, embracing the arriving Ukrainian soldiers.

The retreat comes six weeks after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had announced the annexation of Kherson and three other regions at a high-profile ceremony in Moscow.

As Ukrainian armour and columns of infantry closed on Kherson throughout Friday morning they were cheered by flag-waving civilians in the towns, villages and suburbs of Kherson they had liberated.

The liberation of Kherson was cheered around Ukraine, not least by those who had been forced to flee the city during the brutal Russian occupation.

Amid reports of wounded Russian soldiers being abandoned or taken prisoner and Ukrainian shelling of troops crossing the Dnipro River, one Russian soldier told of some units being told to escape any way they could after claims by one Ukrainian official that some Russian troops had drowned trying to cross the river.

Despite the Ukrainian advance into Kherson city itself, elsewhere in the region fighting continued as the Ukrainian army pounded retreating soldiers as they sought to cross to the left bank of the Dnipro River.

As the Russian ministry of defence announced that the withdrawal was complete, key bridges and crossings over the Dnipro were blown up, including the Antonivskiy Bridge, a pontoon beneath it and a nearby railway span.

Images of the retreat showed lines of distant Russian infantry hurrying over the Antonivskiy pontoon, and columns of vehicles rushing to use the crossings at night-time, and small groups of captured Russian soldiers.

In its daily briefing cited by Russian news agencies, the ministry said all forces and equipment had been transferred to the left, or eastern, bank of the river. In a claim that could not be verified, it said the withdrawal was completed by 5am Moscow time (2am GMT) on Friday.

The Kremlin has remained defiant, denying the retreat represents an embarrassment for the president, Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Moscow continued to view the Kherson region as part of Russia.

Serhiy Khlan, a deputy for Kherson regional council, told a news briefing that some Russian soldiers had been unable to leave the city after months of occupation, and had changed into civilian clothing.

As the Russians left, a large Ukrainian flag was hung in Kherson city centre overnight, possibly by partisans who have been active in the city, as residents largely stayed indoors amid some reports Ukrainian special forces had entered the city.

With Ukrainian estimates suggesting half of the Russian soldiers had been withdrawn across the river by Thursday evening, footage posted on Russian social media channels suggested panic in some units as they scrambled to escape.

As the main body of Ukrainian forces, advancing from three directions, took village after village on its approach, residents tore down pro-Russian propaganda posters and embraced the advancing troops in extraordinary and emotional scenes.

Russia announced on Wednesday it would withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro that includes Kherson city.

One unidentified Russian soldier who posted an account of the retreat described one unit throwing away its uniforms while heaping blame on those in Russia rationalising the retreat.

Ukrainian officials, however, had earlier suggested it would take far longer for Russia to complete its withdrawal.

In an interview with Reuters in Kyiv, Oleksii Reznikov said Russia had 40,000 troops in Kherson region (twice the number of other estimates) and that it still had forces in and around the city and on the west bank of the Dnipro despite announcing their retreat.

Reznikov said such an exit would free forces from both sides to fight elsewhere and suggested Russia could beef up its units in the neighbouring region of Zaporizhzhia that had also been partially occupied for months.

Ukrainian witnesses, however, suggested that retreating Russian convoys were still driving through Kherson city through the night at high speed to reach crossing points.

The retreat came as six people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early on Friday, the local mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych, said.

Rescuers were digging through the debris for survivors, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.