Russian troops leave Kherson region west of the Dnipro River
From CNN's Mick Krever
Russian forces have completed their withdrawal from Ukraine’s Kherson Region west of the Dnipro River, including Kherson city, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
“In the Kherson direction, the move of Russian military units to the left bank of the Dnieper River was completed at 0500 [Moscow time] this morning,” the ministry said on its official Telegram channel.
“Not a single piece of military equipment or weaponry was left behind on the right bank,” the statement said, referring to the western side of the river. “All Russian servicemen have moved to the left bank of the Dnieper” it added, using the Russian spelling for the river.
Images and video on social media on Friday showed that the Antonivskyi Bridge, the main conduit over the Dnipro River in the Kherson region, had been destroyed.
An image circulating on social media Friday showed a Ukrainian flag in the center of Kherson, though there is no suggestion that the Ukrainian military is yet in that city.
5:43 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
Kremlin insists Kherson remains part of Russia
From Anna Chernova
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, with Ukrainian separatist regional leaders; Vladimir Saldo, the Russian appointed head of Kherson, left, Yevgeniy Balitsky, second left, Leonid Pasechnik, right, and Denis Pushilin, second right, seen during the annexation ceremony of four Ukrainian regions at the Grand Kremlin Palace, September 30, in Moscow, Russia. (Getty Images)
The top Kremlin spokesperson on Friday insisted that Ukraine’s Kherson region remains part of Russia, despite the announcement of a withdrawal from the region west of the Dnipro River.
“This is a subject of the Russian Federation,” Dmitry Peskov said during a regular briefing with journalists. “It has been legally fixed and defined. There can be no changes here.”
Russia not "humiliated": Russia still controls a large portion of the Kherson region -- the area east of the Dnipro River.
When asked directly whether Russia’s retreat was “humiliating” for Putin, Peskov replied: “No.”
The main bridge over the Dnipro River, the Antonivskyi Bridge, has been destroyed, images and video on social media on Friday show.
8:36 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
CNN team in newly liberated Ukrainian town sees elation of residents who have seen horror
From CNN's Nic Robertson in Snihurivka and Mick Krever in Kyiv
Soldiers of the forces of the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion celebrate recapturing the city of Snihurivka, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine, on November 10. (Reuters)
A CNN team visiting the newly liberated southern Ukrainian town of Snihurivka on Friday witnessed the elation of residents at being free of Russian occupation.
The CNN team described a party atmosphere in town, with residents greeting each other with hugs on the streets.
"As you drive into the town here, Everyone's waving, everyone's happy," CNN's Nic Robertson reports.
But residents have "horror stories" to tell about their treatment by the Russians -- especially from the past few days.
Snihurivka, in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, lies on one of the main roads to Kherson city, in the neighboring Kherson region. It was on Thursday morning confirmed to have been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
A large crowd was gathered in the central square. Some residents draped themselves in Ukrainian flags. Others broke down in tears recalling the ordeal of Russian occupation.
A month ago, someone was shot for raising a Ukrainian flag, teenagers told CNN's Nic Robertson.
"The situation for people here is really difficult — there's no electricity, there's no gas," Robertson reported.
Reports of looting and torture: Residents described widespread looting by Russian troops, and the CNN team saw a ransacked local bank.
"What's happened in this town over the past few days is the Russians knew they were going to pull out, there was widespread looting, vehicles looted, we've been to the bank here — it's completely ransacked and looted," Robertson reported.
"The police station here, we're told, was used as a base of torture," he added.
A 15-year-old girl told Robertson that in the last few days of Russians being in the area, she was taken away with a hood put over her head, and spent the days fearing she would be raped. She was released yesterday, he reported.
"This is a town that is only just now getting to grips with the idea of liberation, of what it means to be free, of what it means not to have Russian rule here," he added.
4:48 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
Ukrainian official ‘can neither confirm nor deny’ Russian withdrawal from Kherson city
From CNN's Mick Krever in Kyiv
A local Ukrainian official in the Kherson region told CNN Friday that he could “neither confirm nor deny” whether Russian forces have withdrawn from Kherson city.
Let's recap: Moscow on Wednesday said its troops would withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River, an area that includes Kherson city, in one of the biggest military setbacks for Russia since its invasion began. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said that effort began the following day.
Officials in Kyiv, however, have treated the announcement with skepticism. Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia attempted to annex in violation of international law, and some doubt that Moscow would give up fighting for a territory filled with people that Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed would be Russian citizens “forever.”
Ukraine’s military said it had retaken swathes of territory in Kherson on Thursday after Moscow ordered a partial withdrawal from the area, though officials in Kyiv warned that retreating Russian soldiers could turn the regional capital into a “city of death” on their way out.
“As of this moment we can neither confirm nor deny this information since we’re keeping the ‘information silence’ mode,” Yuriy Sobolevskyi, first deputy head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional council, told CNN on the phone Friday. “We do not comment on Ukrainian military movement or the enemy military movement.”
The main bridge over the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s Kherson region has been destroyed, images and video on social media on Friday show.
There is also a suggestion that Russian forces may have entirely left the city, but CNN cannot independently confirm that claim. Alexander Kots, a reporter for the Russian pro-government tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda embedded with Russian forces in Kherson, said that “right now there are no Russian troops on the other side.”
Sobolevskyi told CNN that communication with Kherson city was still extremely difficult.
“From yesterday we are struggling to get in touch with our people on the ground to confirm information,” he told CNN. “There is some signal near the Dnipro River reaching from the East bank, by the Antonivskyi bridge.”
Sobolevskyi also declined to confirm the veracity of an image on social media showing a Ukrainian flag in the center of Kherson city.
“I cannot confirm that is a real photo,” he said. “But I can say that it is the Svobody Square (Freedom Square), where all the rallies against occupation took place. The resistance movement was there in Kherson all the time, since occupation began. People have shown their patriotic attitude with patriotic graffiti, ribbons, flags etc.”
4:58 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
Main bridge across Dnipro River in Kherson destroyed
From CNN's Mick Krever in Kyiv and Teele Rebane in Hong Kong
This image taken from social media shows the main bridge across the Dnipro river into Kherson has been destroyed, November 11. (Twitter)
The main bridge over the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s Kherson region has been destroyed, images and video on social media on Friday show.
There is also a suggestion that Russian forces may have entirely left the city, but CNN cannot independently confirm that claim.
Alexander Kots, a reporter for the Russian pro-government tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda embedded with Russian forces in Kherson, said that “right now there are no Russian troops on the other side.”
An image circulating on social media Friday showed a Ukrainian flag in the center of Kherson, though there is no suggestion that the Ukrainian military is yet in that city.
Kots posted a video on his Telegram channel standing on the Antonivskyi bridge, showing the entire center section of the bridge destroyed.
“Behind me are the two collapsed spans of Antonivka bridge,” Kots said. “They were likely blown up during the withdrawal of the Russian group of forces from the right bank to the left,” or western bank to eastern bank.
Several other images on social media also show the destroyed bridge.
Liberation and retreat: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said more than 41 settlements in southern Ukraine have been liberated following Russia’s decision to move to the eastern side of the Dnipro River.
3:36 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
‘A lot of mines’ in liberated areas: Ukrainian official
From CNN's Mick Krever in Kyiv
A Ukrainian serviceman stands on a street in a village near the newly recaptured city of Snihurivka, in the Mykolaiv region, Ukraine, on November 10. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
An official in southern Ukraine on Friday warned residents to be wary of quickly returning to recently liberated territory.
“There are a lot of mines in the liberated territories and settlements,” Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, said on Telegram.
Don't go there for no reason. There are casualties.”
Ukrainian forces on Thursday liberated Snihurivka, a town in the Mykolaiv region that lies on the main road to Russian-occupied Kherson city, in the neighboring Kherson region.
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia attempted to annex in violation of international law, and Kyiv doubts that Moscow is prepared to give up the territory.
3:23 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
Russian attack leaves Kyiv facing emergency power outages
From CNN's Mick Krever in Kyiv and Josh Pennington
Pedestrians cross a street during a power cut in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 10. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
Overnight Russian attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure have led to emergency power outages “in significant volumes” in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the Yasno energy company said on Friday.
“New attacks at the energy facilities happened overnight,” Serhiy Kovalenko, CEO at Yasno energy company, said in a statement on Facebook. “Emergency power outages are being applied in Kyiv city in significant volumes today. We’re not going with the schedules.”
In the early hours of Friday morning, Russia struck the Vinnytsia region, that region’s leader said.
“Another critical infrastructure facility in the Vinnytsia region was hit again,” Serhiy Borzov said on Telegram.
Russian forces mining roads, destroying infrastructure as they retreat in Kherson, says Ukraine
From CNN's Mick Krever and Josh Pennington
Damaged power lines at the frontline at the northern Kherson region, Ukraine, on November 7. (Hannibal HanschkeEPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The Ukrainian military on Friday said that Russian forces were mining roads and destroying critical infrastructure as they retreated in the Kherson region west of the Dnipro River.
“The Russian invaders continue their looting of settlements from which they are retreating,” spokesman for the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Oleksandr Shtupun said on Friday.
“The enemy is also trying to damage power lines, other transport and critical infrastructure facilities of Kherson region," he said.
Shtupun said that Russian soldiers occupying the Kherson region had "booby-trapped roads and infrastructure elements with mines" in the villages of Tyahynka and Kozatske. He added that the "bombing of civilians" had been documented.
In the village of Zelenivka, on the outskirts of Kherson city, Russian forces “prohibited residents from moving at all throughout the settlement and are finishing a system of defensive borders,” Shtupun said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said its counter-offensive towards Kherson city continued Friday.
Russian forces “are urgently loading into boats that seem suitable for crossing and trying to escape,” the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South said Friday.
They are setting up defense lines on the East bank, shelling our positions on the West bank. The enemy is constantly shelling the rear areas with civilians, keeping civilians in fear.”
3:59 a.m. ET, November 11, 2022
At least two killed, two injured in Mykolaiv after Russian strike, regional military chief says
From CNN’s Teele Rebane in Hong Kong and Josh Pennington
Rescuers work at a site of a heavily damaged residential building in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on November 11. (Viktoria Lakezina/Reuters)
At least two people were killed and two injured in a Russian strike on a five-story residential building in Mykolaiv overnight, a regional military chief said Friday morning.
“The lowlifes responded to our armed forces by launching a rocket strike on a five-story residential building. Two dead, two wounded,” Vitalii Kim, head of Mykolaiv region military administration said on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday the building was destroyed from the 5th to the 1st floor, and search and rescue operations are ongoing.
“The terrorist state's cynical response to our successes at the front,” Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.
We will not give up our struggle. The occupiers will be held to account for every crime against Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
Some context: Mykolaiv neighbors the Russian-occupied Kherson region but Ukraine’s military said it had retaken parts of the territory on Thursday after Moscow ordered a partial withdrawal from the area.
