Russian Forces Ordered To Withdraw From Key Ukrainian City

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has ordered Russian troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson.

General Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said that "Kherson [city] and adjacent settlements in the current conditions cannot be fully supplied and function."

The decision is a significant setback in the ongoing war, as Russia was forced to abandon the only regional capital it had captured since invading Ukraine in February.

Serhii Khlan, a Ukrainian Kherson Regional Council member, said that Russian troops destroyed several bridges as they began a tactical retreat from the city.

"The occupiers blew up not only Dariivskyi and Tiahynskyi bridges, they also blew up the bridge at the exit from Snihurivka towards Kherson across the canal," Khlan said, according to CNN. "They blew up the bridge in Novokairy, blew up the bridge in Mylove."

Serhii Khlan, the exiled deputy governor of the Kherson region, said that the situation for civilians in the city is dire, as many people are without power and communication lines have been severed.

"Kherson is on the verge of humanitarian catastrophe," he said.