Sharjah24 – Reuters: Ukrainian troops have reclaimed dozens of landmine-littered settlements abandoned by Russian forces in southern Ukraine, officials said, the day after Moscow announced its withdrawal from the strategic capital city of Kherson province.

There were indications on Thursday night that Ukrainian forces were getting closer to the city of Kherson, a port at the mouth of the Dnipro River, said a Ukrainian military analyst and a media commentator.

It would take a minimum of one week for Russia to pull out of Kherson city, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Russia still had 40,000 troops in the region and intelligence showed its forces remained in and around the city, Reznikov said.

Russia announced on Wednesday it would withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro that includes Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow has captured since invading Ukraine in February.

A withdrawal would be the third time the smaller Ukrainian military has pushed back the Russians, who were thwarted in the north in March from taking the capital Kyiv. Then in September, Ukrainian troops ousted Russian occupying forces from the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

Kherson province is one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in late September and that most countries condemned as illegal.