Russia orders retreat from Kherson
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 Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered troops to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, in another major setback for President Vladimir Putin’s nine-month invasion of the country. In footage shown on state television on Wednesday, Shoigu accepted a proposal from Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, to retreat from the town to the left bank of the Dnipro river. Surovikin said the withdrawal would happen “at the earliest possible juncture” and that Russia’s troops would set up defensive positions in the remaining parts of the Kherson region that they control east of the city. The decision to pull back marks a decisive moment in a Ukrainian counteroffensive started on August 29, with Kyiv’s forces pushing back Russian artillery with superior manpower and supplies of western-supplied advanced weaponry. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration, said the Russian army was “being knocked out of Kherson”. “Dear Kherson residents. We are returning. You are returning. Welcome back home,” he added, warning however that “fighting on the right bank will continue for some time”.