Russia Abandoning Checkpoints in Ukraine as Flags Pulled Down in Kherson

Russian troops are reportedly abandoning checkpoints in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson, as images circulating on social media appeared to show that a Russian flag had been pulled down from the city council building.

Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the deputy head of Kherson's regional council, posted a photo on his Telegram channel that he says was taken on Thursday.

"Kherson Oblast State Administration. The photo was taken today. The mysterious disappearance of you know what ... Kherson was, is, and will be only Ukrainian. And if not us, you [Russian forces] will take off your rags [Russian flags]," he wrote.

A Russian Telegram channel said on Thursday that a Russian flag has been removed from the administration building in Kherson, while Russian war correspondent Alexander Kots also confirmed the flag's absence.

Kots, the military correspondent for Russian outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda, posted a video on his Telegram channel showing that the flag is no longer flying on the Kherson administration building, but it is on a building across the street.

Jimmy Rushton, a Kyiv-based independent foreign policy and security analyst, said "something very interesting" is happening in the city of Kherson.

"Russian flags at checkpoints and over the city administration building have disappeared," he tweeted. "Checkpoints that were once manned by Russian troops are now abandoned."

Rushton shared a clip he said showed Ukrainian civilians in Kherson riding on a bus filming a checkpoint previously occupied by Russian troops.

"[They] cheer when they realise it's now been abandoned," he wrote.

In late October, the Kremlin-installed administration of Kherson was evacuated to the east bank of the Dnieper river, as Ukrainian forces advanced as part of a counteroffensive to recapture the region, which became of the the first areas to be seized by Russian troops in the war.

Some 70,000 people have already been evacuated, and Vladimir Saldo, Kherson's Russian-installed head, said on Tuesday that he decided to extend the evacuation zone by 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the Dnieper.

He said on Russian state TV program Solovyov Live that the evacuation will affect the Nova Kakhovka urban district, and the Hola Prystan, Oleshky, Kakhovka, Hornostaivka, Velyka Lepetykha and Verkhnii Rohachyk administrative regions.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-appointed military-civilian regional administration, was cited by the Russian state-owned news outlet Kommersant on Thursday as saying that Russian troops are likely to leave Kherson and go to the east bank.

"Most likely, our units, our troops will go to the left-bank part of the Kherson region. Those people who did not have time to move from Kherson should leave as quickly as possible," he said on Solovyov Live.

Russian officials have yet to comment on the disappearance of the Russian flag from the city council building.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment.