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Another humiliating setback for Moscow's forces in the eight-month war, and marks another significant retreat from Russia in Ukraine. Russian troops have been ordered to withdraw from the city of Kherson and surrounding areas in the south of Ukraine. Russia's top commander in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, said it is no longer possible to supply the city and other parts of the west bank of the Dnipro River that it sits on. In televised comments, he said: "We will save the lives of our soldiers and fighting capacity of our units. Keeping them on the right western coast of river Dnipro is futile. Some of them can be used on other fronts." Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, told him: "I agree with your conclusions and proposals. Proceed with the withdrawal of troops and take all measures to transfer forces across the river." The announcement marks one of Russia's most significant retreats and another humiliating setback for Vladimir Putin. Kherson city, which had a pre-war population of 280,000, was seized by Russia early in the war and remains the only regional capital to have fallen. Kherson region was annexed in September, along with three other Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has said a number of times that the return of all occupied territory is a condition for any peace talks with Russia, but Russia is unlikely to agree to this. Ukrainian troops launched attacks during the summer in an effort to take back parts of the province. Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelenskyy, said: "It's necessary to separate words from deeds. "Ukraine does not take these statements by Russia into consideration. "It is still too early to talk about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson: a grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is being maintained in the city, and additional manpower is being pulled into the region." He added: "Our armed forces work according to their plan: reconnaissance, risk assessment, effective counterattack." A very public decision by Russia to order the withdrawal of its forces from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson appears to be a necessary humiliation. Exposed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, commanders faced the choice of staying and slowly dying under Ukrainian bombardment or retreating and living to fight another day. Ukrainian troops will rightly be wary of a trap, designed to draw them forward into Russian fire. But if - as it seems - President Vladimir Putin's forces are genuinely retreating to new defensive lines on the opposite side of the river, it will mark an important win for Ukraine as well as a much-needed psychological boost after more than two-and-a-half months of a bloody counter-offensive in the south. The big question now is whether the Ukrainians can exploit their momentum to keep pushing the Russians back, or will the frontlines freeze until the spring? Both sides are exhausted, have suffered heavy casualties and face increasingly difficult fighting conditions as winter closes in, seeing temperatures drop and visibility worsen. But there is little doubt that Ukraine's armed forces will want to continue to fight, provided their western partners continue to deliver weapons and ammunition. It is the single biggest factor on the Ukrainian side that the government in Kyiv cannot control, beyond keeping up the pressure on their US, British and other NATO suppliers. In recent weeks, Russia been transporting civilians away from Kherson, amid reports this week that some private ferries used by civilians for evacuation have also been sunk. In the hours before the announcement of the Russian withdrawal, pro-Russian journalists and analysts had painted an increasingly gloomy picture. Ahead of the announced retreat, Aleksandr Kots, a journalist with the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid who is in Kherson, said there was “no good news” there, suggesting that the announcement of withdrawal could come soon. “We are waiting for an official announcement,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. Kots also posted several videos from Kherson that he said showed Russian flags removed from government buildings. According to some accounts, the occupation administration has been relocated well to the south of the city. Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser and political commentator, said that the decision to leave Kherson would have “catastrophic consequences”. Advertisement “In Russia, many fear that the decision to leave Kherson has already been made. It is the wrong decision. It could have catastrophic consequences for Russia.” Ukrainian officials warned in recent days that claims that Russian forces were preparing to withdraw may be a ruse, suggesting that some Russian troops were disguising themselves as civilians. The destruction of the bridges, however, suggested that Russian forces were preparing to abandon the positions that they occupied on western side of the Dnipro River. Ukrainian officials and local residents said that at least four bridges had been blown up on Wednesday to slow the Ukrainian advance. Among these was the Dariivka Bridge, the only crossing across the Inhulets river in the Russian-occupied western-bank part of Kherson oblast. The Inhulets divides the occupied area into two, with the city of Kherson in the western part and Beryslav in the east. Images posted on social media also showed two bridges over the canal in Snihurivka had collapsed. Snihurivika has been a key Russian position, anchoring its defences outside Kherson. Thank you guys for watching. This was Elvis For Ukraine, if you enjoyed this video please show support and click the like & subscribe button and I will be back with another video Tomorrow.