Newlyweds celebrate with a kiss in centre of Kherson after it is liberated by Ukraine troops

Newlyweds celebrated with a kiss in the centre of Kherson today after it was liberated by Ukrainian troops.

It came as the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Vladimir Putin has suffered ‘significant reputational damage’ because of the retreat. 

President Zelensky declared that Kherson was back in Ukrainian hands yesterday following Russia‘s retreat from the city — the only regional capital Putin‘s forces had taken since the invasion began.

On Saturday Ukrainian couples celebrated by tying the knot in jubilant scenes in the southern city that has been occupied since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Loved-up couples clutched Ukrainian flags as they rejoiced at the city’s liberation from Putin’s brutal invaders.

They were standing in front of Odesa’s National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which was heavily defended in the first few months of the war.

Joyous locals wept on Friday as they kissed and embraced the first Ukrainian soldiers to arrive in the centre of the Black Sea port, the first major urban hub that fell to Russia. 

‘Our people. Ours. Kherson,’ Zelensky wrote on Telegram today as footage showed Ukrainian troops gathering with residents of the city to celebrate the landmark victory.

In an address to the Ukrainian people, the President said: ‘Today is a historic day, we are returning the south of our country, returning Kherson.’

He praised the strength and spirit of the people of Kherson, who he said ‘believed in Ukraine’ despite the ‘threats, repression and abuse of the occupiers’. 

The southern city was liberated today after nine months under Russian occupation in what has been a major blow for the Kremlin. 

Kherson was one of the first Ukrainian cities captured in the war Moscow waged on its neighbour from February 24. It was the only regional capital Moscow captured in the nine months since Russia’s invasion. 

Losing the Kherson region means Russia no longer has uninterrupted land access to Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

An adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister has said there is ‘panic’ in Russian ranks while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the retreat from Kherson marked ‘another strategic failure’ for Moscow and ‘humiliation’ for Putin’s army.

He said: ‘In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson.

‘Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: ‘What was it all for?’

‘The Russian army has suffered a huge loss of life as a result of their illegal invasion and have only achieved international isolationism and humiliation. Ukraine will press on.

‘The UK and the international community will continue to support them, and while the withdrawal is welcome, no one is going to underestimate the continuing threat posed by the Russian Federation.’ 

Ukrainian soldiers were treated to a hero’s welcome by jubilant crowds as they arrived in the city centre throughout the day, with celebrations going on into the night.

An emotional video appears to show locals hoisting a Ukrainian flag on a monument in the city as they support one another and sing together. 

Earlier in the day, young men were filmed victoriously cheering as they raised a flag in the city’s Freedom Square.

Flag-waving locals wept, chanted the name of the Ukrainian armed forces, hugged and kissed troops as they arrived in the city’s main square hours after the bulk of Moscow’s forces fled back across the Dnipro River.

Ukraine’s artillery had pounded river crossings overnight and into the early hours in the hopes of destroying any last Russians trying to flee.

While Russia said it had withdrawn 30,000 troops across the Dnipro River without losing a single soldier, Ukrainians have described a chaotic retreat and pro-Russian war bloggers have described them coming under heavy fire. 

Serhii Khlan, the deputy head of Kherson’s regional council, disputed the claim that retreating forces took all their equipment with them, saying he was told ‘a lot’ of hardware got left behind. 

Satellite images show the only road route near Kherson across the river, the already damaged Antonivskiy bridge, collapsed, with Russian military bloggers saying it was probably blown up as Russian troops withdrew.

Local reports suggested that Russian troops had been forced to retreat via a makeshift bridge nearby.

A large number of Russian soldiers drowned in the river as they tried to escape and others had changed into civilian clothing, Khlan said. 

Council member Khlan earlier advised Kherson residents not to leave their homes while searches for remaining Russian troops took place.

Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said Kherson was being restored to Ukrainian control and ordered any remaining Russian troops to surrender to Kyiv’s forces entering the city. 

Rumours swirled that thousands of troops might still be trapped in the city, but as the day wore on those hopes seemed to be ill-founded. 

Fears that Russia could be laying some kind of trap also failed to materialise, perhaps suggesting a disinformation campaign to delay the Ukrainian advance long enough for soldiers to get out. 

The withdrawal, in the face of an intense Ukrainian counter-offensive, marks Russia’s third major retreat of the war.

As the news settles in of the city’s recapture, Ukrainians have been celebrating across the embattled country.

Videos out of Kherson appear to show locals partying in the streets tonight as they enjoy their first taste of freedom from the Russian occupiers since March.

Amid the celebrations, Mr Khlan said the humanitarian situation there is dire as the occupiers had destroyed key infrastructure. ‘The situation with fuel is difficult and there has been no electricity for a week,’ he said. Temperatures hit 3C (37F) yesterday, with freezing weather expected to arrive next week.

Nevertheless, victory parades started to break out after it had become clear that Russia no longer controlled the city.

‘Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes,’ shouted one man in a video circulating on social media, a slogan first used by the country’s military as a greeting during Ukraine’s 1917-1921 war of independence.

Iryna Osadcha, a 30-year-old Kherson resident, said that she sobbed as she saw Ukrainian soldiers entering the city. ‘My emotions cannot be described in words,’ she told the Mail. ‘I want to thank Britain and the whole world for their help and faith in us.’

Dasha Zarivna, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser who was born and raised in Kherson, said she was ‘extremely emotional to see Ukrainian flags flying over its city centre again’.

‘This war is only going one way,’ Miss Zarivna said. ‘The Russian armed forces and public in general can see this is becoming a historic humiliation. Hopefully the retreat from Kherson will force wiser heads in the Kremlin to seek a pragmatic way out of this disaster that they have got themselves into.’

Celebrations in the capital Kyiv tonight have seen crowds gathering in Maidan Square, or ‘Independence Square’, waving flags and chanting of support for the military.

Videos earlier today showed the last of Moscow’s troops crossing the Dnipro as the sun rose, before they blew up the main bridge crossing to stop anyone following. 

‘Kherson returns under control of Ukraine,’ Kyiv’s military intelligence directorate said on Friday afternoon, telling any Russian troops left in the city to give themselves up immediately or risk being destroyed. 

The loss of Kherson represents a major defeat for Putin and his armed forces. It was the sole regional capital captured by his army since the invasion began, and sits in a region he declared to be part of Russia just a few weeks ago. 

Losing Kherson means any Russian assault on Odesa is now all-but impossible. It also means that Ukraine can now strike parts of Crimea – the crown jewel of Russia’s last invasion, in 2014 – with long-range artillery. Kyiv has already said it plans to take the peninsula back. 

Russia is now thought to have taken up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro comprising three lines made up of trenches and canals, covered by artillery and backed by reinforcements from Crimea.

Western officials briefing journalists last week said they do not expect Ukraine to begin an offensive across the Dnipro any time soon.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted today that Kherson remains part of Russia’s territory – despite Moscow’s troops fleeing from it.

‘This is a subject of the Russian Federation. There are no changes in this and there cannot be changes,’ Peskov said, insisting that Putin had ‘no regrets’ about annexing it.

However, Western military and diplomatic sources cautioned that the Russian military move did not mean all was said and done – even if it was a major victory for Ukraine.

‘It’s definitely a turning point, but it doesn’t mean that Russia has lost or that Ukraine has won,’ said Ben Barry, a senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. 

‘Russia was still capable of a new offensive or counterattacks. It is far too soon to write them off,’ Barry said.

Ukrainian forces have liberated 41 settlements as they advanced through the south, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Thursday evening video address.

Sappers and pyrotechnicians were going into areas retaken from Russian forces to rid them of thousands of unexploded landmines and ordnance they left behind, he said.

About 170,000 square kilometres (66,000 square miles) remained to be de-mined, Zelensky said, including in places where there was still fighting and ‘where the enemy will add landmines before its withdrawal, as is the case now with Kherson.’

The region’s Ukrainian-appointed governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian troops had ‘taken away public equipment, damaged power lines and wanted to leave a trap behind them’.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said Russia wanted to turn Kherson into a ‘city of death’, mining everything from apartments to sewers and planning to shell the city from the other side of the river.

A small group of Ukrainian soldiers was shown on Ukraine’s state TV being greeted by joyous residents in the centre of the village of Snihurivka, around 55 km (35 miles) north of Kherson city, with a Ukrainian flag fluttering above the square behind them. Reuters verified the location of the video.

A few kilometres away, in a devastated frontline village reached by Reuters in an area already held by Ukrainian forces, the guns had fallen silent for what residents said was the first quiet night since the war began.

‘We hope the silence means the Russians are leaving,’ said Nadiia Nizarenko, 85. The Russians could be preparing a trap, said Nizarenko’s daughter, Svitlana Lischeniuk, 63.

Still, there was joy. Petro Lupan, a volunteer distributing bread to residents, said he could not find words to express his feelings after he learned of the recapture of Snihurivka.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, 54-year-old Larysa, who had recently fled Kherson to reach Ukrainian-held territory, said she could not reach family in the area.

‘We tried contacting them… but there was no connection. We don’t even know… the fate of our relatives.’

‘We’ve lived in the occupied territories for eight months. The situation there is difficult, especially psychologically. Our village is full of armed Russian soldiers… It is a miracle that we got out… There were tears of happiness when I saw our Ukrainian flag and our soldiers.’

Russian state media and pro-Kremlin war hawks defended the withdrawal from Kherson as a necessary move while acknowledging a heavy blow.

The retreat would leave Moscow with only limited gains to show for a ‘special military operation’ that made it a pariah in the West and, according to a U.S. estimate, has killed or wounded some 100,000 Russian soldiers.

Facing losses on the battlefield, Moscow has opened up the possibility of peace negotiations with Kyiv – something the US is said to be quietly pressing for behind the scenes.

American diplomats were said to view the expected slow-down of fighting between the two sides over winter as an opportunity to open up discussions, NBC reported yesterday.

General Mark Milley, chief of the generals staff, backed the idea – saying winter will provide ‘a window of opportunity for negotiation’ provided both sides can agree that victory is not possible by military means.

However, a conflicting report in the New York Times said that European officials were briefing that serious negotiations between the two sides are ‘unlikely in the near future.’

President Zelensky, speaking last night, said the onus is on the Russian side to prove they are genuine about negotiations and he sees ‘no desire’ in Putin to end the fighting.

‘When Russia truly wants peace, we will definitely feel it and see it,’ he said.

‘But you can’t wish for peace with words alone – words are not enough. Stop the war, withdraw from our territory, stop killing people, start reimbursing the damages inflicted on our country. Criminals must be prosecuted. Words are not enough.’

Zelensky said after the annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia that he will never negotiate with Putin, and will instead hold talks with ‘the next Russian leader’.

He reiterated that determination last night, saying that Putin has done nothing but issue ultimatums to Ukraine since the start of the war – and shows no sign of changing his stance.

Zelensky added: ‘It is only the Kremlin and only one person – the head of the Russian Federation – who is not tired of the war. [Putin] might be tired of life in principle, because of his age, but he is definitely not tired of the war.’