‘Betrayal’: Russians turn against Putin after humiliating Kherson retreat

Vladimir Putin has been blasted by pro-war Russians for “betrayal” after a humiliating retreat in Ukraine was labelled a “massive geopolitical defeat”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been dealt a fresh round of humiliation after his troops were forced to retreat from a key Ukrainian region amid the ongoing invasion.

On Saturday, Russia retreated from Kherson, the only Ukrainian regional capital Russia had managed to occupy since its illegal invasion began in late February.

Moscow said on November 11 it had withdrawn more than 30,000 troops in the southern Kherson region to the eastern bank of the Dnipro river.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the retreat a “historic day” and said that military special forces were inside the southern city of Kherson after Russia’s announced retreat.

The withdrawal came just six weeks after Putin declared Kherson would remain his territory “forever”.

Kherson was one of four regions in Ukraine that Putin claimed to have annexed in September.

Pro-war Russian military bloggers revealed they were outraged by the retreat and even went as far to say their faith in Putin had been shattered in a sign of sentiment turning against the dictator.

Vladimir Putin has been forced into an embarrassing retreat. Picture: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP

“I will never forget this murder of Russia hopes. This betrayal will be carved on my heart for centuries,” blogger Zastavny wrote, according to the BBC.

Blogger Zloi Zhurnalist said, “This is a massive geopolitical defeat for Putin and Russia. The defence ministry lost the trust of society long ago … now trust in the president will disappear.”

Putin did not directly acknowledge the retreat.

On Friday, he was touring a hospital in Moscow and didn’t mention the blow to Russia’s war effort.

Instead, that role fell to Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and its commander in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin.

The two men said in a live broadcast that they could no longer hold Kherson.

A former senior defence official who spoke anonymously to The Guardian slammed Putin’s decision to distance himself from the retreat.

“Putin doesn’t want to deliver the bad news and take responsibility for this retreat,” they told the publication.

“He does not want to be associated with failure. This has been his modus operandi for years.”

They pointed to a similar situation, when Russia withdrew from Kharkiv. Like in this case, Putin swept the retreat under the rug and instead spent the day inaugurating a ferris wheel.

Newlyweds celebrate the liberation of Kherson. Picture: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP

Ukrainians dance around a bonfire and sing ‘Chervona Kalyna’, a Ukrainian patriotic song. Picture: UGC/AFP

Ukrainians on Saturday hailed Russia’s retreat from Kherson as Kyiv said it was working to de-mine the strategic southern city, record Russian crimes and restore power across the region.

In the formerly occupied village of Pravdyne, outside Kherson, returning locals embraced their neighbours with some unable to hold back tears, a correspondent saw.

“Victory, finally!” said Svitlana Galak, 43, who lost her eldest daughter in the war.

“Thank God we’ve been liberated and everything will now fall into place.”

Several disabled antitank mines as well as grenades could be seen in the settlement that is home to a Polish Roman Catholic church and a number of damaged buildings.

“All of us are elated,” Zelensky said on Saturday after declaring the day before that the Black Sea city was back in Kyiv’s hands.

“Before fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all critical infrastructure — communication, water supply, heat, electricity.”

Zelensky added that nearly 2000 explosives had been removed.

After an eight-month Russian occupation, Ukrainian television resumed broadcasting in the city and the region’s energy provider said it was working to restore power supplies.

He urged Kherson residents to watch out for possible landmines laid by the Russian troops, saying one policeman had been wounded while de-mining an administrative building.

A damaged bridge in Darivka, Kherson region. Picture: Maxar Technologies / AFP

In the Berislav district of the Kherson region, Ukrainian police said Russian shelling left “dead and wounded”, without providing further details.

On Saturday, an increasingly isolated Putin spoke by phone with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, pledging to intensify political and trade co-operation, the Kremlin said.

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev hinted again that Moscow could use nuclear weapons.

“For reasons that are obvious to all reasonable people, Russia has not yet used its entire arsenal of possible means of destruction,” Medvedev said on messaging app Telegram.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv and the West were on their way to “joint victory”, as he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia.

Kherson’s full recapture would open a gateway for Ukraine to the entire Kherson region, with access to both the Black Sea in the west and Sea of Azov in the east.

People hold a Ukrainian flag and a slogan which reads ‘Kherson – Ukraine’. Picture: Genya Savilov/AFP

Wrapped in flags, popping champagne corks and belting out the national anthem, residents of Kherson living in Kyiv celebrated in the central Maidan square.

“I didn’t believe it at first, I thought it was going to take weeks and months, a few hundred metres at a time, and now we see them arrive in Kherson in one day, it’s the best surprise,” said Artem Lukiv, 41, originally from Kherson.

In London, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Russia’s “strategic failure” in Kherson could prompt ordinary Russians to question the war.

Blinken hailed the “remarkable courage” of Ukraine’s military and people and vowed US support “will continue for as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.

Kuleba warned, however, that Russia is still “mobilising more conscripts and bringing more weapons to Ukraine” and called for the Western world’s continued support.

The Kremlin has insisted that Kherson remains part of Russia.

“This is a subject of the Russian Federation. There are no changes in this and there cannot be changes,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.