Russia orders retreat from Ukrainian regional capital of Kherson

Russia's military announced plans Wednesday to withdraw from the Ukrainian regional capital of Kherson and the surrounding area. 

Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the Kremlin's top military official in Ukraine, told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday that it is impossible to bring supplies to Kherson and surrounding areas on the Dnieper River, the Associated Press reported. 

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in Kherson in late August. The Kremlin annexed Kherson a month later along with three other occupied areas of Ukrainian territory after what was condemned by the international community as a sham election.

The loss of Kherson, the only regional capital to be occupied by Russian troops since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, would be a significant loss for Moscow. The city had a pre-war population of more than a quarter of a million people and is a strategic industrial city.