Ukraine's Troops Enter Kherson as Russia Retreats From City: Live Updates - The New York Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationalist information adviser, expressed cautious optimism connected Saturday implicit Russia’s withdrawal from the city of Kherson, calling it a “big moment” for Ukrainian forces and reiterated that the Biden medication would not propulsion for a diplomatic extremity to the war.

A rift successful the U.S. authorities spilled into nationalist view this week arsenic Gen. Mark A. Milley, the president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began pressing for Ukrainian forces to see capitalizing connected their momentum by negotiating an extremity to the warring earlier wintertime sets in. Mr. Biden’s advisers, including Mr. Sullivan, person publically pushed backmost connected the thought that they should unit President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to cede territory to Russian invaders.

“Ukraine is the enactment of bid successful this conflict, and Russia is the enactment of war,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to halt warring successful Ukraine and left, it would beryllium the extremity of the war. If Ukraine chose to halt warring and springiness up, it would beryllium the extremity of Ukraine.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One arsenic President Biden traveled from Egypt to Cambodia for a gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mr. Sullivan said that Ukrainian forces reclaiming territory was “quite a singular thing.” He said that what happened successful Kherson hadn’t changed the administration’s position, partially due to the fact that the Russian authorities has continued to marque claims astir annexing territory contempt retreating from Kherson.

The warfare successful Ukraine volition beryllium a absorption of Mr. Biden’s erstwhile helium arrives successful Bali, Indonesia, connected Sunday for the Group of 20 summit. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia volition not be the gathering successful person, but Mr. Biden is readying to bring up the warfare in a meeting with President Xi Jinping of China. The president volition “rally like-minded nations to talk retired forcefully” against the invasion, Mr. Sullivan told reporters during a property briefing earlier successful the week.

MIKOLAIV, Ukraine — The liberation of Kherson has jolted Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora with a question of excitement, pridefulness and axenic joyousness dissimilar thing other since the warfare began.

Ukrainian troops connected Friday retook the strategically captious Black Sea port, which was the archetypal large metropolis to fall to Russian control little than a week aft the invasion. Their accomplishment successful the confederate Ukrainian metropolis reverberated successful Ukrainian communities crossed the world.

In Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, crowds flooded into the streets; successful Kherson, they danced astir a glowing bonfire; In Lviv and different Ukrainian cities, radical popped champagne.

In Poland, Germany, adjacent Georgia, each places wherever Ukrainians driven from warfare person started lives successful exile, friends gathered, hugged, sang nationalist songs and poured generous drinks.

Many Ukrainians said that successful 9 months of war, they hadn’t felt thing similar this.

“Today is simply a miracle,” said Olena Yuresko, a bartender successful Mykolaiv. “I’ve been checking the quality each time connected my phone, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling — and crying.”

KYIV, Ukraine — After an detonation took down the past span implicit the Dnipro River retired of the metropolis of Kherson earlier dawn connected Friday, Ukrainian officials and subject analysts turned their eyes to caller harm to a dam successful the metropolis of Nova Kakhovka, immoderate 50 miles to the northeast.

The roadworthy implicit the dam was the past large crossing near to Russian forces. It is besides a captious portion of infrastructure that holds backmost a assemblage of h2o the size of the Great Salt Lake successful Utah.

For weeks, the Ukrainians person warned that Moscow mightiness harm the dam successful a mode to origin a wide casualty event. Before its troops fled connected Friday, Russia sought to stoke fearfulness successful Kherson by saying Ukraine planned to stroke up the dam.

It is not successful the involvement of either service to destruct the dam, subject analysts person said, arsenic it would person an interaction connected some armies, present connected other banks of the river.

But outer images amusement that the country astir the dam has suffered harm betwixt Thursday and Friday, erstwhile Russian forces retreated to the eastbound broadside of the Dnipro, abandoning Kherson and the surrounding territory connected the westbound bank.

An representation taken by the U.S. outer imagery institution Maxar astatine 10:25 a.m. section clip connected Friday showed that 3 spans of some the roadworthy and the railroad astatine the bluish extremity of the connecting span spanning the dam had been destroyed. Images from the erstwhile time showed nary damage.

It remained unclear whether the dam’s structural integrity oregon its sluice gates had been damaged. Neither could it beryllium determined which broadside was responsible.

Reports of explosions astatine oregon adjacent the dam started circulating connected the Telegram messaging app astir 6:30 a.m. section time. Maxar said images showed respective different bridges that transverse the Dnipro stream had besides been damaged aft Russian troops withdrew.

Ukrainian strikes connected tiny bridges implicit the dam’s spillway had already partially closed the way to conveyance traffic.

Even earlier the war, the dam’s value was evident. Its reservoir is important to the operations of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, astir 100 miles upriver, providing the h2o indispensable for cooling functions.

As Russian positions grew much precarious recently, Moscow accused Ukraine of readying to destruct the dam — a assertion that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed arsenic absurd.

Kyiv has said that it had nary inducement to flood its ain onshore and that the Russian accusations, made without evidence, were a motion Moscow was preparing a “false flag” cognition to stroke up the dam itself, perchance flooding 80 towns, villages and cities, including Kherson.

“Russia is consciously laying the groundwork for a large-scale catastrophe successful Ukraine’s south,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned during an code to the European Council past month.

South Korea said it would merchantability thousands of artillery shells to the United States, but lone connected information that the matériel beryllium utilized by American forces, not sent to assistance Ukraine successful the warfare against Russia.

Amid a planetary scramble for caller sources of arms to nonstop to Ukraine, South Korea, among different countries, has been reluctant to nonstop lethal assistance to Ukraine for fearfulness of getting drawn into the conflict.

A U.S. authoritative confirmed negotiations betwixt Washington and Seoul for a South Korean defence contractor to merchantability the cannon-sized ammunition to the Pentagon. The United States has been a large supplier of the weapons Ukraine desperately needs arsenic the nine-month warfare grinds on.

The woody was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, which said the artillery shells were destined for Ukraine.

But successful a connection connected Friday, South Korea’s defence ministry said the merchantability was to assistance replenish American artillery stockpiles. It said the negotiations were being conducted “on the information that the United States volition beryllium the last idiosyncratic of the shells.”

“There is nary alteration successful our government’s stance: we volition not proviso lethal weapons to Ukraine,” the connection said.

It is imaginable that the South Korean ammunition would lone beryllium utilized to backfill American-manufactured rounds that, successful turn, are sent to Ukraine. Such behind-the scenes weapons transfers person go progressively communal arsenic U.S. officials and NATO allies effort to springiness screen to states that privation to look neutral during a clip of war.

But respective American officials reached connected Friday either were unclear of the presumption of the woody oregon different refused to comment.

In a statement, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the negotiations betwixt South Korea and the United States but pointedly did not notation Ukraine.

Lt. Col. Martin Meiners noted “discussions astir imaginable income of ammunition to the United States by the South Korean nongovernment concern defence base.”

He said that each weapons deals betwixt the United States and South Korea were cautiously monitored to marque definite they did not make vulnerabilities for those forces connected the Korean Peninsula connected defender against threats from North Korea.

Any deals “will not detract from our antiaircraft posture oregon readiness to respond against determination threats,” Colonel Meiners said.

In Russia, sum was alternatively subdued of the withdrawal of the country’s troops from the determination superior of Kherson and its surroundings, the latest successful a drawstring of setbacks suffered by the Russian subject since it invaded Ukraine astir 9 months ago.

On a flagship quality speech amusement connected authorities television, “60 Minutes,” the midday newscast did not adjacent pb with the withdrawal. The archetypal header was astir immoderate “exclusive footage” of Russian marines capturing a colony called Pavlovka successful the Donetsk region.

Then came a reasonably straightforward study astir the withdrawal of Russian troops crossed the Dnipro River, ceding the determination superior of Kherson to Ukraine.

Kherson was hardly mentioned during an ensuing discussion, either, but astatine 1 constituent good into the program, Olga Skabeeva, the anchor, said that the pullout was “the astir concerning portion of quality for us, and we anticipation we volition beryllium capable to rectify this forced measurement successful the future.”

State-run media — and determination is nary different benignant wrong Russia — has been portraying the nonaccomplishment of Kherson arsenic a impermanent setback, calling it a “regrouping” oregon the “Kherson maneuver” alternatively than a retreat.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense issued a connection announcing the withdrawal of 30,000 soldiers and 5,000 pieces of instrumentality successful what it described arsenic an orderly manner. Various subject bloggers constricted their sum to that statement, embroidered with a fewer disparaging asides astir the Ukrainians.

Correspondents covering the communicative tried to enactment a heroic rotation connected the day. A station successful a transmission of the Telegram messaging app featuring the enactment of warfare correspondents from the authoritative RIA Novosti quality bureau described the past file of paratroopers pulling retired of municipality implicit the Antonivsky Bridge, the main way successful and retired of Kherson, before blowing it up.

“American missiles plowed the ground,” the station said. The car doorway of the correspondents got dented, but different everyone emerged alive.

“Now you person to combat connected the near bank,” the station said, referring to the country eastbound of the Dnipro, wherever Russian forces person retrenched. “Nothing is finished, thing is lost.”

In the archetypal burst of sum aft the Russian subject announced the planned withdrawal connected Wednesday, authorities quality outlets began drafting comparisons to battles implicit the past respective 100 years erstwhile the Russian Army was forced to retreat, lone to triumph astatine a aboriginal date.

One of the comparisons rolled retired connected Friday was to the withdrawal of the White Army from Crimea connected Nov. 11, 1920. In the latest twist of history, Russian troops seized the peninsula from Ukraine successful 2014.

For some, however, the determination to propulsion backmost inactive rankled. In an interview, Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin analyst, ticked disconnected antagonistic consequences of what helium called Russia’s “defeat” successful Kherson: a much motivated Ukrainian Army on with reassurance for its Western backers; a driblet successful Russian subject morale; a diminution of nationalist enactment for Russia successful the areas it inactive occupies due to the fact that radical determination mightiness fearfulness that Russia would wantonness them, too; and even, potentially, a deed to Mr. Putin’s popularity astatine home.

Alina Lobzina and Anton Troianovski contributed reporting.