Russian troops have been ordered to withdraw from the Ukrainian city of Kherson in yet another humiliation for Vladimir Putin.

His top commander in the country Sergei Surovikin – whose ruthlessness on the battlefield earned him the sinister sobriquet ‘General Armageddon’ – said they would retreat from the western bank of the Dnipro River.

Abandoning Kherson would represent a major setback for Russia. It is the only regional capital the Kremlin had seized during the eight-month war.

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately confirm the move, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested it could be a ruse to lure his forces into an entrenched battle.

On Wednesday, Surovikin reported to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that it was no longer possible to keep Kherson city supplied.

Shoigu agreed with his proposal to retreat and set up defences on the eastern bank.

In televised remarks, Surovikin said: ‘We will save the lives of our soldiers and fighting capacity of our units. Keeping them on the right (western) bank is futile. Some of them can be used on other fronts.’

Kherson is the main city of the region of the same name – one of four Ukrainian regions which Putin proclaimed in September he was incorporating into Russia ‘forever’, and which the Kremlin said had now been placed under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella.

The Russian military has concentrated much of its firepower on securing control of the others – Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.

Earlier this week, President Zelensky reiterated that the return of all occupied territory was a condition for any peace talks with Russia.

Compounding the sense of Russian disarray in Kherson, the Kremlin’s number two official there, Kirill Stremousov, was killed in a car crash on Wednesday.

Stremousov was one of the most prominent faces of Russia’s occupation. Ukraine viewed him as a collaborator and a traitor.

In a video statement only hours before his death, Stremousov denounced what he called Ukrainian ‘Nazis’ and said the Russian military was in ‘full control’ of the situation in the south.

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