Russia's withdrawal from the strategic southern city of Kherson will shift the fighting in Ukraine eastward, make it harder for the Kremlin to justify its war at home, and spur unsuccessful talk in Moscow and the West of renewing cease-fire negotiations with Kyiv. On Nov. 9, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the withdrawal of troops stationed in Kherson, the strategic Ukrainian city located along the Black Sea and the Dnieper River that Russia captured in the opening days of its war. Shoigu made the decision at a staged briefing released to Russian state media with the general in charge of Russia's war in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, who explained that Ukrainian shelling had made it impossible to properly supply his troops on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The retreat follows reports of several Ukrainian attacks along the Kherson front, as well as rumors that some Russian forces in...
