The Russian president is clinging on to other parts of southern Ukraine in the faint hope he will be painted as a tactical genius
On Russian state television, the scene was played on loop.
General Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, said he believed that the time has come to withdraw from Kherson.
With his face in a deep frown, the man known as “General Armageddon” argued it will save the lives of Russian soldiers, who face being cut off if they do not retreat to the right bank of the Dnieper River.
General Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, grunts his agreement.