Sharjah 24 – AFP: Russia said Friday it had finished pulling back its troops from Kherson in southern Ukraine, abandoning the only regional capital its forces had captured in nearly nine months of fighting.

The Kremlin meanwhile insisted that the city was still part of Russia and said it did not regret annexing the urban hub and the Kherson region at a lavish ceremony in late September.

The announcement came hours after Russian strikes battered a residential building in Mykolaiv, killing at least seven people in the city near Kherson that Moscow's forces have been battering for months.

"Today at 5 o'clock in the morning Moscow time (0200 GMT), the transfer of Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnipro River was completed. Not a single piece of military equipment and weapons was left on the right bank," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on social media.

Ukrainian officials have remained wary after Moscow announced this week that it would pull forces to defensive positions on the east bank of the river in Kherson, in what would be a major Russian setback in a region Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed.

The Kremlin however on Friday dismissed any suggestion the status of the region had changed after the retreat.