Scenes of jubilation broke out in Ukraine's southern Kherson city on Friday as Ukrainian forces advanced through much of the city and its surrounding area, apparently encountering little or no resistance as they regained the only regional capital captured by Russia this year.
The withdrawal is another humiliating setback for Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and the most significant military moment in the war since Ukrainian forces swept through the northern Kharkiv region in September.
In leaving the western half of Kherson, the Russians have pulled back from thousands of square kilometers, including some of Ukraine's best farmland, which it has occupied since the early days of the invasion.
Russian forces have now ceded about 40% of the Kherson region, which straddles the Dnipro, within a few days. In Moscow, some hawkish commentators have lamented the withdrawal as a humiliation and an embarrassment.
Events in Kherson and Kharkiv have shown that the Ukrainians possess tactical agility that seems alien to the Russian way of war, as well as far superior battlefield intelligence.
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