https://www.dw.com-President Zelenskyy is skeptical of Russia’s withdrawal announcement, saying “the enemy does not bring us gifts.” Meanwhile, a top US general said Russia’s army has lost more than 100,000 personnel. DW has the latest.
Zelenskyy has reacted skeptically to Moscow’s announcement that Russian troops would withdraw from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
In a rare move, Russian Defense Minister said in a televised briefing on Wednesday that troops should leave the west bank of the Dnipro River where Kherson is situated.
But Zelenskyy cast doubt on the announcement, saying: “The enemy does not bring us gifts, does not make ‘gestures of goodwill.'”
Zelenskyy added in his nightly address that any gains for Ukraine would only come “at the expense of “lives lost by our heroes.”
“[Russia] wants to turn Kherson into a ‘city of death.’ [The Russian] military mines everything they can: apartments, sewers. Artillery on the left bank plans to turn the city into ruins,” Zelenskyy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Thursday.
A British defense intelligence update on Thursday said Russian forces “had been placed under pressure by Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s resupply routes.”
According to the update, the withdrawal would likely take days as Russia’s forces destroyed bridges and “laid mines” to stall advancing Ukrainian troops.
DW’s correspondent in Kyiv, Nick Connelly, said the Russian televised announcement was inconsistent with Moscow’s earlier withdrawals from occupied Ukrainian regions.
“This is definitely a break in strategy. Also, all the talk about wanting to save Russian soldiers’ lives… that is also not something that really gels with what Russia has been doing elsewhere,” Connelly said, adding that this has led Ukrainians to believe that the announcement is “a trap.”
Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on Thursday, November 10:
Top US general estimates 100,000 Russian casualties
Top US General Mark Milley said more than 100,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or injured in Ukraine.
“Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side,” Milley said in remarks in New York.
He also said that there was a possibility for negotiations to end the war as military victory might not be possible for both sides.
“There has to be a mutual recognition that military victory is probably in the true sense of the word maybe not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means,” Milley said.
“There’s… an opportunity here, a window of opportunity for negotiation.”
Ukraine signs peace accord with Southeast Asian bloc
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba signed a treaty on cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the latest bid by Kyiv to shore up international support.
The highly symbolic move comes despite the ASEAN nations being rather reserved in the their stance toward Russia’s war on Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden is set to attend the ASEAN summit in person.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin won’t attend the summit in Cambodia, nor will he go to the upcoming G20 meeting in Indonesia. Moscow will instead send Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Asked to comment on Ukraine’s presence at the meetings, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said “This theme in general has nothing to do with us.”
fb/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)