MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. The Russian Armed Forces have completed the redeployment of troops and military equipment to the left bank of the Dnieper River, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashaekov said on Friday.
"In the Kherson direction, the redeployment of Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnieper River was completed at 5:00 am Moscow time today. Not a single piece of military equipment was left on the right bank," he pointed out. "There were no losses in manpower or military equipment and material resources of the Russian group of forces," Konashenkov added.
He specified that all Russian troops had crossed to the left bank of the Dnieper. The Kherson Region’s residents willing to leave the right bank of the river received evacuation assistance . "Russian military formations and units took up defensive positions that had been prepared in the engineering sense," the general said.
He added that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had tried to disrupt the relocation of civilians and the movement of Russian troops from Kherson last night. "The Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted five attacks on Dnieper River crossings during the night, using US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers," he specified. Konashenkov noted that Russian air defenses downed 28 rockets, while another five were diverted from their targets by electronic warfare. "Ukrainian troops have advanced no more than ten kilometers in certain directions in the past two days," he added.
On November 9, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu ordered that Russian troops be pulled from the right bank of the Dnieper River back to the left bank based on a suggestion by Army General Sergey Surovikin, chief of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Surovikin pointed out that Russian troops were successfully thwarting Ukrainian attacks and one of the reasons for withdrawing was the risk that if areas downstream from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant got flooded, Russian forces would be isolated. According to him, all civilians who wanted to leave the area - over 115,000 people - have been relocated from the right bank. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the Kherson Region had been legally enshrined as a Russian constituent entity and it could not be changed.