War against Ukraine: Russian media reports brief retreat in Kherson

Two Russian state news agencies briefly reported on an alleged withdrawal of their own army in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine – but withdrew the report shortly afterwards. “The management of the Dnepr group has decided to regroup the armed forces to more favorable positions in the east of the (river) Dnipro,” the Tass state agency said in the morning. The Ria Novosti agency published a similar text. A few minutes later, both announced that the reports had been “cancelled.”

A little later, the RBK portal also quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that it was a case of “sending false news” and a “provocation”. What exactly was behind the incident was initially unclear. The military itself did not distribute any communication to this effect. However, journalists from the independent portal Meduza pointed out that Russian state media often received ministry announcements before they were officially published.

What is meant by “regroupings”.

The Russian military has used “regrouping” to describe its own defeats and retreats in the past – for example in the fall of 2022 in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine.

Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for more than 20 months now and initially almost completely occupied the Kherson region. Almost a year ago, the Ukrainian army liberated the northwestern parts of the area. Since then, the Dnipro River has formed the front line. In recent weeks, however, there have been increasing reports that the Ukrainians have crossed over to the southern bank as part of their counteroffensive and have already established themselves there. They therefore also brought several islands under their control. However, this has not yet been officially confirmed.