Conflict
Russia Possibly Exiting Across From Kherson
Images on Tuesday appeared to show Russian troops had quit a town in Ukraine across the Dnipro River from Kherson, the city they surrendered last week, suggesting one of the war's biggest retreats may not have ended at the water's edge.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told world leaders at the G20 Summit in Indonesia there would be no let-up in Ukraine's military campaign to drive Russian troops out of his country, following victory last week in the only regional capital Russia had captured since its invasion.
"I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped," he said.
"We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilization," he added.
Russia had said it was pulling its forces across the wide Dnipro River to more easily defended positions on the opposite bank. But in video filmed in the town of Oleshky, across a collapsed bridge over the Dnipro from Kherson, there was no sign of any Russian presence.
Ukraine's military said overnight that it had fired at enemy positions in Oleshky, but Ukrainian officials have not commented on images appearing to show Russian troops had withdrawn there.
The war is a central focus of the G20 Summit, at which Western leaders denounced Moscow. Russia is a member and Ukraine is not, but Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed home.
In his speech to the world leaders on the Indonesian island of Bali, Zelenskyy described a peace proposal under which Russia would withdraw all its forces from Ukraine, free all prisoners and reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity.
He said he would indefinitely extend a programme to safeguard Ukrainian grain exports, and expand it to the port of Mykolaiv, beyond reach of Russian guns after the Kherson advance.
"Please choose your path for leadership - and together we will surely implement the peace formula," he said.
The United States expects the G20 to condemn Russia's war in Ukraine and its impact on the global economy, a senior U.S. official said. Russia's membership makes consensus on Ukraine unlikely, and the official declined to say what form the condemnation would take.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, heading Russia's delegation in Putin's absence, accused the West of trying to politicize a declaration from the summit by including language condemning Russia's actions in a draft.
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