Following last week’s Russian withdrawal from the city of Kherson, Kyiv has accused Moscow’s forces and their local allies of having committed numerous “war crimes” before their departure.
Pro-Russian officials, for their part, claim that Ukrainian forces, which entered Kherson over the weekend, were committing “extrajudicial reprisals” against pro-Russian residents of the city.
On Nov. 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kherson, the provincial capital of the Kherson region.
Most of the region, including its capital, was captured by Russian forces in the opening weeks of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24.
“We are moving forward,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainian troops currently deployed in Kherson. He also thanked Kyiv’s Western allies, especially members of the NATO alliance, for their ongoing financial and military support.
“You see our strong army,” Zelenskyy said. “We are step by step coming through our country, the temporarily occupied territories.”
In a televised address delivered hours earlier, the Ukrainian leader accused Russian forces of having committed numerous “war crimes” before their recent departure from the city.
“Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found,” Zelensky said, adding that investigators had already documented more than 400 Russian “war crimes” committed in the vicinity.
Ukraine Carrying Out ‘Reprisals’: Moscow
Pro-Russian officials, meanwhile, allege that Ukrainian forces in Kherson have begun carrying out “extrajudicial reprisals” against pro-Russian residents of the city.“Immediately after the Ukrainian army entered Kherson, the city was declared closed,” Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian official in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, said on Nov. 14.
Quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency, Rogov claimed that a “purge” was currently underway against pro-Russian residents of Kherson city.
He went on to assert that Kyiv planned to present victims of Ukrainian reprisals as the victims of “Russian atrocities.”
“People tortured to death and killed as a result of extrajudicial reprisals by Zelensky’s militants will now be presented as victims of violence of Russia and Russian soldiers,” Rogov said.
The Epoch Times was unable to verify claims made by either side.
On Nov. 11, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it had withdrawn all its forces—in good order—to the other side of the Dnipro River, including from the city of Kherson.
The decision was based on assessments by Gen. Sergey Surovikin, who was appointed by Moscow last month to command Russia’s ongoing military operations in Ukraine.
According to Surovikin, the withdrawal sought to preserve the lives and combat capabilities of Russian military personnel and free them up for redeployment to other areas along the 680-mile-long frontline.
In the weeks leading up to the withdrawal, Russian military authorities oversaw the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilian residents of Kherson.
On Nov. 14, TASS quoted Kherson’s Moscow-appointed mayor as saying that between 40,000 and 50,000 local residents had opted to remain on the Kherson side of the river.
In late September, the Kherson region—along with the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia—was incorporated into the Russian Federation after referendums were held in all four territories.
Kherson is seen as the most strategically vital of the four annexed regions, as it commands the only land route to the Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnipro River.
US, Russian Spy Chiefs Meet in Ankara
In a related development, CIA Director William Burns met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Naryshkin, in the Turkish capital Ankara on Nov. 14.The meeting was confirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
According to a White House spokesperson, Burns was “not conducting negotiations” with Naryshkin, who heads Russia’s foreign intelligence service.
“He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine,” the spokesperson told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
This represents the first known direct contact between top-level United States and Russian officials since the conflict began almost nine months ago.
The White House spokesperson said Burns was “conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia and the risks of escalation to strategic stability.”
The spokesperson added that the CIA chief, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, also planned to raise the issue of U.S. nationals “unjustly” detained by the Russian authorities.
