In his interview with Mark Feygin, Aleksey Arestovich gave an answer to an exciting question: is the Russian Federation playing the withdrawal of troops from Kherson, or did they really go to leave Kherson and other settlements?
"For the first time in 8 months, they (the Russian Federation) told the truth. And the truth is that the retention of Kherson is futile. It is clear that Surovikin and Shoigu acted out the script written by the director. They said the "correct" words and destroyed the Ukrainian army several more times, but the essence of what they said was that the retention of Kherson was futile. That is a month-2-3, but anyway, we (Ukrainian troops) would take Kherson."
"Only the capture can be different," said Arestovich. "We could take it through snowy fields full of Russian military equipment and surrender Russian soldiers who lost 20 kg of weight because they are underfed because they have no organised supply. Or they will withdraw in an organised manner in order to save forces for taking part in hostilities in other directions. Absolutely the same thing they did when they left Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy. They obviously go for the second option. That's what the Russian army has learned to do in this war: retreat. And this time, they leave very organised."
And yes, they have already begun to withdraw. But, attention! Firstly, fewer men are withdrawing than is necessary if there was now a full-fledged withdrawal of the entire group. For example, now 200 units of equipment passed through the Novo-Kakhovska dam in 4 hours. And this is not very much. They rolled back along the entire bridgehead line, but only from the first line of defense. They now occupy the second and third lines, mainly in the places of irrigation facilities. And this is a natural anti-tank obstacle, you just can’t get through it. They destroy bridges behind them. And often before leaving.
For example, yesterday, there was engineering equipment on the first line. They are laying pontoon bridges in unexpected places without our supervision and control. Because we kept the existing bridges under control. And as soon as the equipment accumulated, we hit them. As it was in the Kyiv operation. The main losses were inflicted on them when they tried to cross the bridges. They have wised up. And now they have destroyed the main bridges so the troops would not be tempted to go there. Dense mining of all paths and roads has already been determined. Therefore, there is no rush to escape. And there are two questions: how long will they go out, and will they give us dense rearguard battles, that is, will they hold Kherson? There are no answers to these questions yet.
Our troops are moving exceptionally slowly. Planned and methodical. We are constantly stopping at the lines and doing additional reconnaissance. From the good news, we are now working very closely with artillery. Including the retreating troops. The bad news is that we still don't have enough long-range weapons to interrogate the third withdrawal of the Russian forces properly. That is, do not let anyone out at all. So it was near Kyiv, we beat them very tightly, but they still came out. The same thing happened near Chernigiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv. And this time, unfortunately, most of it will now leave."
