Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia orders troops to leave key Ukrainian city of Kherson | Ukraine

A British man has died fighting in Ukraine, his family and the Foreign Office said on Wednesday.

Simon Lingard died on Monday, according to a GoFundMe set up by his family for funeral expenses. The father of two from Blackburn, Lancashire, was described as “an inspiration to all who knew him” and “a real life hero who died fighting for what he believed in”.

“He was loved and adored by so many a true representation of what a soldier should be,” the fundraiser’s description reads.

A Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed Lingard’s death in a statement to AFP.

“We are supporting the family of a British national who has lost his life in Ukraine and we are in touch with the local authorities in connection with his death,” the spokesperson said.

The time in Kyiv is almost 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s main headlines:

• Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered the country’s troops to leave Ukraine’s city of Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow captured since the invasion began in February. Ukrainian victory in Kherson, one of the main objectives of Kyiv’s southern offensive, will be widely seen as a significant blow to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, only weeks after a high-profile ceremony in Moscow in which he announced the “forever” annexation of Kherson region along with three other regions.

• While Russia did not formally declare that it was abandoning the key city of Kherson, all signs point to a Moscow retreat from the only regional capital it captured after invading in February. In a televised meeting with defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Gen Sergei Surovikin said it was no longer possible to keep supplying Kherson.

• Russian forces have destroyed bridges on the west bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region to slow a continuing Ukrainian advance, as it was reported that one of the most prominent Russian-installed officials had been killed in a car crash. As the Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, described “intense fighting” on the southern frontline, Ukrainian troops were reported to have retaken a number of settlements.

• Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, has died in a car crash, state news agencies have reported, citing local Russian-backed officials. Stremousov, previously an anti-vaccine blogger and political marginal, had emerged as one of the most prominent public faces of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, frequently using social media to record aggressive anti-Ukrainian videos. Stremousov’s death comes as Ukraine appears to have launched a new offensive to recapture the key city of Kherson.

• Senior United Nations officials planned to meet members of a high-level Russian delegation in Geneva on Friday to discuss the Ukraine grain deal, a UN spokesperson said. “They will continue ongoing consultations in support of the efforts by the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the full implementation of the two agreements signed on 22 July in Istanbul,” the spokesperson said in a statement today.

• Jens Stoltenberg said Vladimir Putin made “several huge mistakes” when he invaded, including underestimating Nato’s ability to support Ukraine. “President Putin made several huge mistakes when he invaded Ukraine, strategic mistakes,” the Nato chief told media outside No 10 Downing Street on a visit to the UK.

• The UK Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence update, saying: “Russian efforts to repair the Crimean bridge continue but it is unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.” According to intelligence, the road bridge was closed yesterday to allow the movement and installation of a replacement 64-metre space. Three more spans will be required to replace the damaged sections. “Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023.”

• Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said Moscow had contacts with US officials from time to time, and confirmed there would soon be US-Russia consultations on the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty, the last remaining arms control agreement between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

• Ukraine has collated thousands of reports of its children being deported to Russia and wants their plight addressed at a summit of the Group of 20 major economies, Vladimir Zelenskiy’s chief of staff was quoted as saying on Tuesday. “The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes in connection with Ukrainian children,” Zelenskiy’s office quoted Andriy Yermak as saying at a meeting he chaired of a group of officials responsible for child protection. “The removal of children continues.”

• Thousands of Kyiv residents have signed a petition urging city authorities not to erect a giant tree during this year’s festive period, and instead to give money to the army and to people displaced by the war with Russia. The Kyiv tree, which in recent years has been set up in front of the 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral at the heart of the capital, is traditionally the main one in Ukraine at Christmas and New Year.

• Russia has been an “active adversary” of the UK for a number of years, the British defence secretary has said. Ben Wallace visited the Lydd army camp in Kent, where Ukrainian volunteers are being trained to fight in the war against Russia. The cabinet minister referred to the Salisbury novichok poisonings in 2016 and said the UK did not fear reprisals from Russia for supporting Ukraine.

• Villages and towns in Ukraine have experienced more heavy fighting and shelling as Ukrainian and Russian forces strained to advance on different fronts after more than eight and a half months of war. At least nine civilians were killed and 24 others were wounded in 24 hours, the Ukrainian President’s office said, as it accused Russia of using explosive drones, rockets, heavy artillery and aircraft to attack eight regions in the country’s south-east.

• Ukrainian and Russian forces also clashed overnight over Snihurivka, a town about 30 miles north of the southern city of Kherson, the Associated Press reported. Ukraine’s army hopes to reclaim the Russian-occupied city, the only regional capital captured during Moscow’s February invasion and a key target of an ongoing counter-offensive.

• The US basketball player Brittney Griner is being transferred to a Russian penal colony but neither her family nor legal team have any details on where she is or where she is going.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Danya Hajjaji will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pjotr Sauer

While Russia did not formally declare that it was abandoning the key city of Kherson, all signs point to a Moscow retreat from the only regional capital it captured after invading in February.

In a televised meeting with defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Gen Sergei Surovikin said it was no longer possible to keep supplying Kherson.

Shoigu then ordered his troops to withdraw from the right bank of the River Dnipro where the city of Kherson is located and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank.

Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson was met with both anguish as well support from prominent pro-war figures.

Defending Russia’s decision to withdraw, the head of the Wagner private military corporation and an ally of Gen Surovikin, Yvgeny Prigozhin said:

Of course, this is not a victorious step in this war, but it is important not to agonise, not succumb to paranoia, but to draw conclusions and work on our mistakes.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Chechnya, similarly backed Surovikin. He said:

After weighing all the pros and cons, General Surovikin made a difficult but correct decision… everyone knew that Kherson is a difficult combat territory from the very first days of the special operation.

Luke Harding

On the edge of a copse, Danilo and two fellow soldiers stared intently at a screen. On it was a live video feed from a drone. “It’s quite simple to use. We put the drone up, call in an artillery strike and see where it lands. Then we adjust the position,” said Danilo, a member of Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanised Brigade.

The drone offered a panoramic view of the city of Snihurivka, occupied since spring by Russian troops. There was an industrial estate, buildings, and a grain silo, used by the enemy as a lookout point. The latest attack missed its target. “We were 300 metres off,” said Danilo, pointing to the feed that showed a puff of grey smoke.

The trio were standing next to a white satellite dish connected to Elon Musk’s Starlink system. Immediately behind them was a well-developed network of first world war-style trenches, dug beneath a line of bare autumn trees. For months the Russians were a mere kilometre away, hidden in civilian houses and dugouts.

On Wednesday however, they were staging a withdrawal. The Kremlin was retreating from its positions in Snihurivka and other villages on the right bank of the Dnipro. The ruined city is in a sliver of Mykolaiv oblast, close to the administrative border with the Kherson region and the occupied city of Kherson.

Russia orders troops to leave Ukrainian city of Kherson

Pjotr Sauer

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered the country’s troops to leave Ukraine’s city of Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow captured since the invasion began in February.

Ukrainian victory in Kherson, one of the main objectives of Kyiv’s southern offensive, will be widely seen as a significant blow to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, only weeks after a high-profile ceremony in Moscow in which he announced the “forever” annexation of Kherson region along with three other regions.

Peter Beaumont

Russian forces have destroyed bridges on the west bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region to slow a continuing Ukrainian advance, as it was reported that one of the most prominent Russian-installed officials had been killed in a car crash.

As the Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, described “intense fighting” on the southern frontline, Ukrainian troops were reported to have retaken a number of settlements.

A few hours after Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, announced that Ukrainian forces had gained a foothold on the northern edge of Snihurivka amid heavy fighting, a town that lies on a highway 31km north of Kherson city, Stremousov himself was reported by Russian media to have died in unclear circumstances.

Stremousov – a former anti-vaccination blogger – had become the hated face of Russia’s occupation of Kherson, posting videos online, including a bizarre poetry rendition and hosting press conferences for pro-Russian media.

According to local media reports, the crash happened near Henichesk, on the Sea of Azov, the seaside town used as the headquarters of the Russian occupation administration since it fled Kherson.

The Tass news agency said the press service for the head of the region had confirmed Stremousov’s death.

Alexander Dugin, a far-right nationalist figure in Russia whose daughter was killed earlier this year in a car bomb, said: “Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the administration of the Kherson region, has died. A true hero. Kherson must be defended at all costs. Kherson is what keeps Russia in power today.”

Kremlin defence minister orders Russian troops to retreat in key city of Kherson

Pjotr Sauer

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered the country’s troops to retreat to the Dnipro river’s right bank, a move that will likely lead to Moscow surrendering the key southern city of Kherson.

Ukrainian victory in Kherson, one of the main objectives of Kyiv’s southern offensive, will be widely seen as a significant blow to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, only weeks after a high-profile ceremony in Moscow in which he announced the annexation of the Kherson region along with three other regions.

In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, recommended the withdrawal of Russian troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, citing logistical difficulties.

“Kherson cannot be fully supplied and function. Russia did everything possible to ensure the evacuation of the inhabitants of Kherson.” Surovikin told Shoigu.

“The decision to defend on the left bank of the Dnipro is not easy, at the same time we will save the lives of our military,” Surovikin added.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered his troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the face of Ukrainian attacks near the southern city of Kherson, the Reuters news agency reported.

More to follow on this story as it happens.

The main bridge on a road out of Kherson city was blown up, bringing more turmoil to a Russian-held area where Ukraine’s forces are advancing.

Images on the internet showed the span of the Darivka bridge on the main highway east out of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine completely collapsed into the water of the Inhulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro River that bisects the country.

Reuters was able to verify the location of the images, though not how the bridge had been destroyed or by whom.

Ukrainians who posted the photos speculated it had been blown up by Russian troops in preparation for a retreat, but Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military analyst, told Reuters it could have been destroyed by Ukrainian saboteurs to isolate Russian forces on either side and “cut the fighting unit in half”.