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Kherson returns to Ukrainian hands after eight months
Summary
A look back at 11 November 2022, when Ukrainian troops entered Kherson as Russian forces pulled back across the Dnieper.
What did it mean when Ukrainian troops entered Kherson on 11 November 2022? The city was the only Ukrainian regional capital captured by Russia during the invasion, and its eight-month occupation ended that day.
A retreat announced, then carried out
The entry followed a rapid sequence. On 9 November 2022, Russian forces announced a retreat from the city of Kherson, the western bank of the Dnieper River in Mykolaiv Oblast, and the western part of Kherson Oblast. The move came as part of the wider Ukrainian southern counteroffensive, which had been launched on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces from the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv.
On 10 November 2022, Ukrainian troops recaptured the village of Kyselivka, advancing within nine miles of the city centre. Explosions were reported near the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. The same day, the Ukrainian military said it had retaken Snihurivka in Mykolaiv Oblast, the last city in that oblast still controlled by Russia.
On 11 November 2022, as Russian forces withdrew from the west of the Dnieper, they destroyed the Antonivka Road Bridge. Ukrainian troops then entered Kherson.
Moscow's side of the week
The retreat announcement coincided with another development on 9 November 2022. Russian officials said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson military–civilian administration, had been killed in a car crash while travelling to Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree posthumously awarding him the Order of Courage.
Also on 11 November 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry banned 200 U.S. citizens from entering Russia. The list included White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and three siblings of President Joe Biden.
Western support and the wider cost of the war
The Kherson advance unfolded alongside continued Western military aid. On 10 November 2022, the Pentagon announced a $400 million weapons package for Ukraine. It included four AN/TWQ-1 Avenger surface-to-air missile systems, Stinger missiles, 400 grenade launchers, 100 humvees, and artillery rounds and small arms ammunition.
The war's economic effects reached well beyond the front line. On 11 November 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization forecast that global spending on food imports would rise by 10 percent from the previous year by the end of 2022, to an all-time high of US$1.94 trillion. It attributed this to currency depreciations and the war in Ukraine. The bulk of the increase would come from high-income countries, and food import volumes were also expected to rise. The food price pressures of 2022 had several drivers, including pandemic-related supply chain disruption, the global energy crisis, floods and heatwaves in 2021, and drought, as well as the invasion.
What the day showed
Taken together, the events of 9 to 11 November 2022 show a southern front changing quickly: a Russian retreat announced, villages and towns retaken, a bridge destroyed in withdrawal, and finally the return of a regional capital to Ukrainian forces. Foreign aid, Russian counter-measures against Americans and the global food bill ran in parallel, a reminder that the war was being fought on several fronts at once.
