Ukraine Update…247 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine….Kherson

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• Footage shared on social media Thursday and verified by The Post shows Ukrainian forces in newly recaptured towns in the Kherson region. Another video taken in Stanislav, west of the city of Kherson, showed the Ukrainian flag being raised as onlookers cheered.

• Ukrainian officials signaled that their forces were treading carefully in Kherson despite Russia’s Wednesday announcement of a withdrawal from the area. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian troops may have turned Kherson into a “city of death” by planting mines and booby traps as they left. Zaluzhny, the army chief, said the amount of land Ukrainian forces had recovered as of Thursday amounted to around 1,381 square kilometers.
• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter that Ukraine was “right to be cautious” about the Russian retreat from the city of Kherson, and announced a new aid package of surface-to-air missiles and cold-weather supplies.

• NATO’s secretary general said it was “clear” Russian forces were “coming under heavy pressure” in Kherson, adding that a full Russian withdrawal there would be “another victory for Ukraine.” President Biden said the Russian retreat would allow Moscow and Kyiv to “recalibrate their positions over the winter period” and “decide whether or not they’re going to compromise.” But he added that the United States was not going to force Kyiv to negotiate.
• More than 100,000 Russian troops — and probably about as many Ukrainian troops — are estimated to be dead or wounded since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Gen. Mark A. Milley. the Pentagon’s top general, said late Wednesday at an event by the Economic Club of New York, The Post reports.

• A Russian withdrawal from the Dnieper River’s west bank probably will prevent Moscow from “achieving its strategic aspiration” of a land bridge reaching the western Ukrainian city of Odessa, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. It said Russia has destroyed bridges and possibly laid mines to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces, adding that the Russian withdrawal is likely to take several days. The limited bridge access would also leave Russian forces vulnerable in crossing the Dnieper, the ministry added. Russian also troops blew up part of the region’s television broadcasting center and damaged heating, power and communications infrastructure, Reuters reported.
• Ukrainian forces continued to advance in the Mykolaiv region on Thursday. Mykolaiv regional governor Vitalii Kim put out a video on Thursday in which he told civilians in areas returned to Ukrainian control that humanitarian aid and supplies were on their way. Kim would not discuss the battlefield situation other than to say the news was “good.”
• Russian missile attacks could slow as its troops stockpile weapons to prepare for large-scale assaults, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force said. Yuri Ignat said Russian forces have likely realized that single strikes were having only a limited impact and were therefore aiming to carry out more significant strikes, according to Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
• Forty-one settlements have been liberated in the south of Ukraine, Zelensky said in his speech discussing Thursday’s accomplishments. “The occupiers leave behind thousands of unexploded mines and munitions,” he said, noting that the next step is to demine these settlements. That process, he said, normally takes decades, but Ukraine with the help of Western allies could do in years….

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