Ukrainian General Staff: Individual Russian military units are leaving Zaporizhzhia

Certain units of the Russian army are leaving their positions in several locales in the annexed part of Zaporizhzhia. This was reported by the Ukrainian General Staff in its evening digest on December 1.

The Russian troops are also preparing to evacuate members of occupation-appointed local administrations. The same digest reports that Russian units formerly based in the police and school buildings in Mykhailivka, a village about 60 kilometers from Melitopol, have left the village.

In the city of Polohy and the nearby village of Inzhenerne, Russian troops are leaving the private homes where they stayed — and looting what valuables they can take with them. The Russian-appointed local government of Burchak, another Zaporizhzhia village, is compiling lists for the “voluntary evacuation of the residents.”

Neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the occupation authorities in Zaporizhzhia have yet made any comment on the Ukrainian General Staff’s report.

In wartime, verifying reports from either side of the conflict takes time. This article might be corrected in the future.

• The Ukrainian and Russian armies are both getting ready for renewed combat in the winter. The Ukrainian military is likely to be headed for a breakthrough in the Zaporizhzhia region, where it could cut off the Russians from the Crimean isthmus and push them farther into Crimea. Almost all of the supplies for the Russian grouping in Zaporizhzhia are going through the Crimean peninsula.