Russia signals retreat in southern Ukraine but Kyiv fears trap, Lloyd Austin optimistic comments

A Russian official in the Kherson region has indicated Russian troops might pull back from the west bank of the Dnieper river, but as the United States sounded an optimistic note on Ukraine’s ability to retake the strategically-important southern city of Kherson, Kyiv was more wary.

“Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left (eastern) bank,” Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, said in an interview on Thursday with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.

The area includes Kherson city, the capital of the region of the same name, and the only major Ukrainian city captured intact since Russias spop in country eight months ago. It also includes one side of a dam across the Dnieper, which controls the water supply to irrigate Crimea.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday (November 3) he believes Ukrainian forces can retake Kherson from Russian forces.

"On the issue of whether the Ukrainians can take the remaining territory [under Russian control] on the west side of the Dnipro River and in Kherson, I certainly believe that they have the capability to do that," he said.

The Defense Secretary pointed out that not only he trusts their capabilities to secure the disputed territory but that, "most importantly" the Ukrainian military believes they can do it.
* Ukrainian forces can retake the strategic southern city of Kherson from Russia: Lloyd Austin
[https://youtu.be/HPRVQmm0rdk]
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VIDEO: The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has published footage of the work of the pontoon crossing units of the Southern Military District (SMD) during the evacuation of civilians from Kherson and the right-bank part of the Kherson region to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Military engineers daily carry out the movement to the left bank of the Dnieper up to one thousand two hundred civilian vehicles, as well as more than five thousand civilians. Ukrainian militants daily launch rocket attacks on the bridge built by pontoons.
* Residents leave the territory of the Kherson region under shelling. Situation is ‘tense’:
[https://youtu.be/-TLv4kdAHiw]