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Russia destroys bridges in occupied Kherson region and appears to withdraw from some villages

From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Mick Krever in Kyiv

 Russian forces have destroyed bridges across occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region west of the Dnipro River, a local Ukrainian official and Russian military analysts on Telegram reported on Wednesday.

Serhii Khlan, a member of the Ukrainian Kherson Regional Council, said that Russian forces appear to be staging a tactical retreat from some frontline villages to “slow down the onslaught of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” CNN cannot independently confirm his claims.

“The occupiers blew up not only Dariivskyi and Tiahynskyi bridges, they also blew up the bridge at the exit from Snihurivka towards Kherson across the canal,” Khlan said during a press conference. “They blew up the bridge in Novokairy, blew up the bridge in Mylove.”

“The occupiers are now blowing up absolutely all bridges” in the occupied Kherson region west of the Dnipro River.

Images and reports from Russian propagandists and military analysts on Telegram appear to corroborate those claims. 

A popular Russian military analysis channel said Wednesday that “the destruction of bridges across the Kherson Front began to slow down the advance of the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine].”

Khlan said that Russian forces were withdrawing “en masse” from frontline villages along the western bank of the Dnipro River. He said that though it was not yet possible to officially say that Russia had abandoned the settlements, Russian forces were no longer present in Kachkarivka, Mylove, Novokairy, Berezynske, Sukhanove, Chervonyi Yar, Piatykhatky and Sadok.

“We must admit that the occupiers are running away, the occupiers are retreating,” Khlan said. “The most important task for them with the reinforced checkpoints that they are now doing in Niddniprianske, on the approaches to Kherson, and in Kozatske, on the approaches to Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam, is to ensure the withdrawal of their troops.”

There appears to have been fierce fighting around the Russian-occupied town of Snihurivka in the Mykolaiv region, just north of the Kherson region.

“As I understand, the occupiers are reinforcing [fortifications] in order to ensure the withdrawal of their units from the front line. We can say that under the onslaught of our Armed Forces, the occupiers are preparing and doing everything possible to make it look like a planned retreat from the front line, rather than an absolute failure of the front,” he said.