Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said special units of the country’s armed forces were already in the southern city of Kherson following Russia's withdrawal, describing the moment as historic.
"Today is a historic day. We are getting the south of the country back, we are getting Kherson back," Zelenskyy said in an evening video address, according to Reuters.
"As of now, our defenders are on the outskirts of the city, and we are very close to entering. But special units are already in the city," he continued.
Zelenskyy said that measures to make Kherson safe - in particular, efforts to remove what he called “a lot of mines” - would start as soon as possible.
Russia abandoned Kherson earlier this week. Russian forces captured Kherson in the first week of the invasion of Ukraine, the first major city they captured after invading the country in February.
Russia's defense ministry said on Friday that "more than 30,000 Russian servicemen, about 5,000 pieces of hardware and military equipment and materiel have been withdrawn".
While it would appear a major Russian setback, the Kremlin insisted that Kherson was still part of Russia and that it did not regret annexing the entire Kherson region at a lavish ceremony in late September.
"This is a subject of the Russian Federation. There are no changes in this and there cannot be changes," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to AFP.
Asked by reporters whether Russia regretted annexing Kherson, Peskov said the Kremlin had "no regrets" about the move.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)