KYIV: On Wednesday, the top general of the United States claimed that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured in Ukraine. He also stated that Kyiv's armed forces "probably" experienced a comparable number of losses.

At the same time, Russia's military announced its withdrawal from the only Ukrainian regional capital it has captured on Wednesday, but Kyiv was sceptical, and an analyst warned that this could be a ruse to lure Ukraine's forces into a deadly trap. A forced withdrawal from Kherson would be one of Russia's worst setbacks in the eight-month-old war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia is feigning a withdrawal from Kherson in order to draw the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle. The port city serves as a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and its surrounding areas.

If confirmed, Russia's withdrawal from Kherson — in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September — would add to Russia's earlier failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, which never fell to the Russians. Kherson, with a prewar population of 280,000, was captured early in the invasion, which began on February 24.

As part of a bigger counteroffensive in the east and south of Ukraine, Kyiv's forces have cut off supply routes to the city. Russian internal pressure to intensify the confrontation will very certainly increase if Moscow retreats.

Russia's top military commander in Ukraine says it is impossible to supply the city of Kherson. He warns that its defence would be "futile" if Russia had to rely on other countries' ships to deliver food, fuel and medical supplies.

According to Gen. Sergei Surovikin, 115,000 individuals have been transferred due to the danger to their life.
Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential advisor, says that "so far, we do not see any signs that Russia is completely leaving the city of Kherson."

After being overtaken by pro-Ukrainian rebels from the so-called Black Sea peninsula of Kerch, close to the Russian border, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled province of Kherson urged locals "not to give in to ecstasy."

One of the military analysts said, "This could very well be an ambush and a Russian trap to force the Ukrainians to go on the offensive."

According to Zelenskyy's website, who declined to provide further information, he met with his senior military staff in Kyiv as news of a Russian retreat spread to discuss the situation, including efforts to retake the land.

Reports surfaced Wednesday that the No. 2 official of the Moscow-installed Kherson regional government was killed in a car crash. There was no indication of foul play. The death of Kirill Stremousov — a prominent regional official who posted public updates about the war almost daily— was reported by Russian state news agencies and his boss, Vladimir Saldo.

The Russian Defense Ministry said months ago that Saldo himself had been poisoned and hospitalized.

Surovikin, the head of the Russian military, appeared to lay the groundwork for a potential pullout from Kherson in October. In contrast to the hasty retreat from Kharkiv, the Russian military appeared to have been preparing for an orderly departure — or an ambush — for months.

In recent months, Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers to hit a key bridge on the Dnieper in Kherson and a large dam upstream that is also used as a crossing point. The strikes forced Russia to rely on pontoons and ferries that Ukraine also targeted.

The United States and its NATO allies have stopped short of direct intervention in Ukraine, but are arming, advising and enabling its military to defend Kyiv against Russia's invading armies.

Milley said the conflict so far had turned anywhere from 15 million to 30 million Ukrainians into refugees and killed probably 40,000 Ukrainian civilians.

"You're looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded. Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side. A lot of human suffering," Milley said.

Despite the high casualty numbers, U.S. officials say that Moscow has been unable to achieve its objectives in Ukraine and have raised questions about how long Russia will be able to sustain an invasion that has also decimated much of its mechanized ground forces and sapped artillery stockpiles.