In Mykolaiv, the doubts of the Ukrainians on a Russian withdrawal from Kherson
In the market of Mykolaiv, a large city in southern Ukraine located less than 100 kilometers northwest of Kherson, where journalists from Agence France-Presse went, many residents say they doubt the withdrawal of forces of the only regional capital conquered in eight months of war.
“Why now would they get up and go after defending Kherson for eight months with all their might? », asks Igor Kossorotov, a 59-year-old mechanic. The day before, the general in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, had nevertheless announced that the withdrawal of the western bank of the Dnieper would take place ” very quickly “. But the Ukrainian army remains cautious, saying it can neither confirm nor deny information on this “alleged withdrawal”.
“How can you believe a word they say?” »laughs Volodymyr Vypritsky, a driver, between two stalls of vegetables and hats. “How can you believe these people who always told us they were our brothers? People who kill their brothers, can you really believe them? », asks this 55-year-old man. The Kremlin has officially affirmed for several months that Russians and Ukrainians form one and the same people, divided by geopolitical errors.
Svitlana Kyrychenko, a saleswoman, says she was unaware of Moscow’s announcement and that friends told her instead that the Russians were fortifying Kherson. According to her, “we can’t trust them, no one is going to give us anything back just like that”.
In recent days, satellite images still showed the Russians digging lines of trenches on the left bank of the Dnieper, on the other side of the river. These positions could allow the Russians to be very well placed to target Ukrainian troops entering Kherson. For the mechanic Kosorotov, “the Russians will simply destroy the city and then there you go”. “They will make it sink in the river”he declares in a colorful way.