What Kherson's recapture meant by 14 November 2022
A look back at the Kherson recapture and the events around it as of 14 November 2022, from the Russian retreat to Western arms and food-price pressures.
What had changed on the southern front by 14 November 2022? In the space of a few days, the answer was a great deal. Russian forces had announced on 9 November that they were retreating from the city of Kherson, the western bank of the Dnieper and the western part of Kherson Oblast. By 11 November Ukrainian troops had entered the city, ending an eight-month occupation of the only Ukrainian regional capital Russia had captured during the invasion.
A rapid sequence
The advance was part of the southern counteroffensive, which Ukraine launched on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces from Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts. On 10 November Ukrainian troops recaptured the village of Kyselivka, bringing them within nine miles of Kherson's centre, and explosions were reported near the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. The same day the Ukrainian military said it had retaken Snihurivka, the last city in Mykolaiv Oblast still held by Russia.
As they withdrew from the west bank of the Dnieper, Russian forces destroyed the Antonivka Road Bridge on 11 November. On 9 November Russian officials said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson military–civilian administration, had been killed in a car crash while travelling to Crimea; Vladimir Putin issued a decree posthumously awarding him the Order of Courage.
Support and fallout abroad
On 10 November the Pentagon announced a $400 million weapons package for Ukraine. It included four AN/TWQ-1 Avenger surface-to-air missile systems, Stinger missiles, 400 grenade launchers, 100 humvees, and artillery rounds and small arms ammunition.
Moscow also responded diplomatically. On 11 November the Russian Foreign Ministry barred 200 U.S. citizens from entering Russia, among them the White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, and three siblings of President Joe Biden.
The war's economic effects were also being counted. On 11 November the Food and Agriculture Organization forecast that global spending on food imports would rise by 10 percent by the end of the year to an all-time high of US$1.94 trillion, citing currency depreciations and the war in Ukraine. It said the bulk of the increase would come from high-income countries, and that import volumes were also expected to rise.
On 14 November itself, the United Kingdom announced it was withdrawing its troops from Mali, citing political instability and the controversial relationship between the military junta led by Assimi Goïta and Russia's Wagner Group.
