Russia says it is abandoning the Ukrainian city of Kherson

of brutal war have borne little fruit for Russia. It was beaten back from in the spring. It was routed in in September. Since the start of the war in February it has lost perhaps 100,000 men, killed and wounded. The only provincial capital it has managed to take is Kherson city, captured in the first week of war and illegally annexed in September. And now that, too, seems to be slipping from its grasp. On November 9th Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, and , appointed as the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine weeks earlier, met Russian commanders and acknowledged that Russia’s position in Kherson had become untenable. The “most sensible option” in the circumstances, said General Surovikin, would be to establish a new defensive line on the eastern side of the Dnieper river. “Sergei Vladimirovich, I agree with your conclusions and suggestions,” replied a stony-faced Mr Shoigu. “For us, the lives of Russian servicemen are always a priority.”