The takeover of Kherson is the most recent in a run of failures for the Kremlin, which invaded Ukraine on February 24 in the hopes of a quick coup that would take just days to overturn the regime.
In a surprise visit to the city on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the liberation of Kherson and declared it to be “the beginning of the end of the war.” However, Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of NATO, issued a warning that Ukraine would have challenging months ahead and advised against underestimating Russia’s military power.
Additionally, during their Monday talks, US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping—a significant Vladimir Putin ally—agreed that nuclear weapons should never be deployed, especially in Ukraine.
The blue and yellow flag of the nation was raised next to Kherson’s major administrative structure while pictures of Zelensky singing the national anthem while placing his hand over his chest were circulated by the Ukrainian president. Zelensky declared, “This is the beginning of the war’s end.”
It is a long and painful journey because the conflict claimed the lives of our country’s greatest heroes. We are prepared for peace, but it will only last as long as our entire country and territory do “Added he. The visit of the Ukrainian leader was dismissed by the spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin as having any bearing on the status of the Kherson area, which Moscow formally annexed last month. In Kherson, Zelensky proclaimed that “the cost of this struggle is high.”
“There are casualties. There are a lot of dead. We are currently in the Kherson region as a result of the bloody fights that took place.” It was a mistake to undervalue Russia. He travelled to the city, the administrative hub of the Kherson region, just days after Ukrainian forces entered it after Russia withdrew its troops on Friday.
The coup is the latest failure for the Kremlin, which invaded Ukraine on February 24 in the hopes of staging a quick coup that would overthrow the government within days. However, Stoltenberg warned that “we should not make the error of underestimating Russia” and predicted that “the following months will be difficult.” He stated at a news conference in The Hague reported that “Putin’s goal is to leave Ukraine in the dead of winter.”
The national energy corporation of Ukraine said that Russian soldiers destroyed a crucial energy facility before withdrawing from the western side of the Dnipro River. Russia has regularly targeted Ukrainian infrastructure. Additionally, a senior US military source told journalists that preliminary evidence suggests that Russian forces left behind “severe damage to civilian infrastructure,” including “water and utility systems.”
Kherson was the sole regional capital captured by Moscow’s soldiers and the first significant urban center to fall to Russian forces. The Kherson region, one of four that the Kremlin declared to be annexed and a part of Russia, can now be accessed by Ukraine thanks to its recapture. Putin promised to defend them from Ukrainian soldiers using whatever means necessary, maybe including nuclear weapons.
But according to the White House, Biden and Xi agreed at their G20 discussions that nuclear weapons should never be deployed, especially in Ukraine. In a statement, it was further stated that “Presidents Biden and Xi reaffirmed their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons or the threat of using them in Ukraine and underlined their agreement that a nuclear war should never be started and can never be won.
It’s probable that Moscow still has a “limited number” of troops on the western bank of the Dnipro, according to the senior US military officer. However, the Russian military also claimed that its troops were making progress in the nearby Donetsk region, taking the village of Pavlova, where fighting had raised eyebrows in Russia.
“Beginning of End of War”: Zelensky in Ukraine Following the Liberation of a Major City
