Vladimir Putin was notably absent when Russia announced its retreat from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Instead, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukraine commander Gen Sergei Surovikin delivered the news in a televised exchange, saying holding Kherson was no longer tenable. The Russian leader spent the day visiting a neurological hospital in Moscow, making no mention of the withdrawal.
Experts said Putin's distance from the decision reflects his reluctance to associate with failure, a pattern seen during the earlier retreat from Kharkiv. However, analysts also noted that the retreat shows Putin can be pragmatic when necessary. Tatiana Stanovaya of R Politik said, 'It is wrong to say that Putin never retreats or backs down. He can be rational.'
The retreat signals a change in Putin's strategy, according to a former senior defence official. Putin rejected requests to retreat from Kherson in September, but now appears ready to 'freeze' the conflict while his army regroups and trains newly mobilised soldiers. The official said, 'Putin is in no rush. He sees this as a longer, large-scale conflict with the west.'
The decision received support from hardliners Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin, who praised it as a difficult but necessary choice to preserve soldiers' lives. Analysts said the Kremlin had coordinated the withdrawal with pro-war elites to avoid public division, and that appointing Surovikin was partly to have a figure to take political blame for the retreat.
