Kremlin warns that Kherson is still ‘subject of the Russian Federation’ despite completing their troop withdrawal

The Russian Defence Ministry has said that they have completed the withdrawal of all their troops in the city of Kherson.

The Ministry said that all equipment has now been removed and transferred to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River on Friday morning.

The added that there is not a single soldier or pieces of military hardware left on the Western side of the river, which also includes Kherson.

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The Kremlin has said on Friday that despite the Russian forces’ withdrawal from Kherson, this will not change the status of the region.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Kherson’s status is “fixed” and that no changes were possible and in September Vladimir Putin said that the newly annexed regions will remain Russian lands “forever.”

Peskov added, “It is a subject of the Russian Federation – it is legally fixed and defined. There are no changes and there can be no changes.”

Peskov told the BBC, “There are lots of different experts – some say what you’ve said, some say other things. We don’t want to comment on any of them.

“The ‘special military operation’ continues.”

In September Moscow held sham referendums in four Ukrainian regions which were immediately denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytri Kuleba said that this is a very important battlefield success for Ukraine amid the withdrawal of Russian troops.

He wrote, “Ukraine is gaining another important victory right now and proves that whatever Russia says or does, Ukraine will win.”

Andriy Yermak, a senior presidential adviser, tweeted, “The Russian army leaves the battlefields in a triathlon mode: steeplechase, broad jumping, swimming.”