The BBC's International Editor, Jeremy Bowen, explains how Russia's public declaration that it will withdraw from Kherson could be a trap.

Speaking from Odesa in Ukraine, he said he wouldn't be surprised if Russia leaves a "few surprises", alluding to booby traps.

Image source, Reuters

The war in Ukraine can be hard to keep up with, so we’ve put together a timeline from the beginning back in February to today, to make sure you’re up to date with the latest developments.

• In late 2021, Vladimir Putin began building up troops on the border of Ukraine which caused unrest and worry
• The first strikes on Ukraine happened on February 24 and Russian troops were ordered by Putin to advance into the country en masse
• There was a big push for the capital Kyiv but the Russians failed amid fierce Ukrainian resistance
• In early March, however they took large parts of the south, including Kherson province

• In April, Russia launched an offensive to seize all of Donbas region in the east, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk
• In May, the final Ukrainian fighters defending the southern port city of Mariupol surrendered, ending with the siege of a giant iron and steelworks

• At the start of September, Ukraine drove back Russian forces and claimed to have regained 3,000 square kilometres in the north-east, but Russia still held about 20 percent of Ukraine
• On 30 September, Putin formally annexed four regions of Ukraine: Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - though his forces didn't control much of the territory claimed
• Now, in November, the Russian defence minister has ordered the withdrawal of his forces from Kherson, and the west bank of the River Dnipro - a big victory for Ukrainians if it goes ahead

Hugo Bachega
BBC News

A Russian retreat from the strategically important city of Kherson would be a major victory for Ukraine, and a humiliating setback for President Putin.

This is the only regional capital that Russian forces managed to capture since they invaded in February, and it is the capital of one of the four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin claims to have annexed.

A withdrawal would also mean that Russian forces have pulled out entirely from the western bank of the Dnipro river, which bisects Ukraine.

Since the start of its counter-offensive in August, Ukraine has consistently targeted the bridges used by Russia to supply troops in the area, using sophisticated Western longer-range weapons. Military analysts say the situation had become unsustainable and Gen Sergei Surovikin, the commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine, said the decision was taken as it was no longer possible to supply the city.

In Kyiv, officials remain sceptical, saying Russian forces remained in the city and that it was not yet clear what their intentions were. It also remained unclear how the invading troops would pull out with limited crossing points and under pressure from a Ukrainian army advancing from three sides.

In his nightly address, President Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were “moving gradually, strengthening our positions step by step”.

“There is a lot of joy in the media space today, and it is clear why. But our emotions must be restrained,” he said. “The enemy does not bring us gifts, does not make ‘gestures of goodwill’.”

The city of Kherson is located in southern Ukraine and before the war had a population of about 380,000.

It lies on the banks of the Dnipro river near the Black Sea coast and is close to Crimea, part of Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014.

For that reason, if Ukraine were to recapture Kherson it could be seen as a gateway to recapturing Crimea.

The Dnipro river also runs through into the centre of Ukraine, so controlling it is strategically important.

Kherson is the only one of Ukraine's regional capitals to fall to Russian forces. It was taken in early March, months before Russia announced it, along with the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, was to be annexed.

Read more here.

We're hearing that Vladimir Putin won't attend the upcoming G20 summit, due to be held in Bali, Indonesia, next week.

It follows months of speculation over whether the Russian leader would or wouldn't attend the event, which will start on 15 November and last for a day.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will lead the Russian delegation instead.

It's believed the Kremlin may be seeking to avoid potential confrontations between Putin and other world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, over the war in Ukraine.

One report, by the AFP news agency, quotes the Russian Embassy’s chief of protocol Yulia Tomskaya as saying "Putin’s program is still being worked out, he could participate virtually" - but that hasn't been confirmed by the Kremlin.

Image source, EPA

Megan Fisher

Image source, Sputnik

The appointment of General Sergei Surovikin, Vladimir Putin's new tactic in the war against Ukraine, came hours after the attack on the Crimean bridge last month.

In response, on his first day, Surovikin, nicknamed General Armageddon, oversaw Ukraine being hit by one of the widest series of missile strikes in months.

So who is the new commander?

Born in 1966 in Novosibirsk, the 55-year-old is a veteran of Russia's recent wars, having started his active military career in Afghanistan in the late 1980s. He went on to serve in the 1990s conflicts in Tajikistan and Chechnya and, more recently, in Syria.

Read more on Surovikin's life and career here.

Image source, EVN

General Sergei Surovikin, who was made Russia's commander in Ukraine just weeks ago, announced the planned withdrawal of his troops from Kherson on TV.

Alongside other military top brass, he confirmed Russian troops would pull back entirely from the western bank of the River Dnipro.

It is a significant blow to Russia's military ambitions as it faces a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Surovikin said: "I understand that this is a very uneasy decision. At the same time, we will save the lives of our servicemen and the combat capability of our troops."

He added: "The manoeuvre of the troops will be carried out in the near future, formations and units will occupy prepared defensive lines and positions on the left bank of the Dnipro River."

James Waterhouse
Ukraine correspondent, reporting from Kyiv

Significant as Moscow’s announcement is, there aren’t going to be convoys of Ukrainian tanks triumphantly moving into Kherson unchallenged.

“We see no evidence that Russia is leaving without a fight,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the presidential office in Ukraine.

His military isn’t buying the “withdrawal” either, describing it as an attempt by the Kremlin to “save face”.

There are also practical realities which back up these reservations.

The Institute for the Study of War reckons Russian forces are simply now prioritising a withdrawal while delaying the Ukrainian advance.

That involves fighting.

Kyiv will nevertheless see this as an opportunity.

Moving thousands of Russian troops across a wide part of the Dnipro river with damaged crossings is extremely risky for the invading forces.

Large territorial gains are also going to be extremely rare once December arrives.

For President Zelensky, there is no better case for continued Western support than the liberation of Kherson.

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has posted its latest intelligence update following Russia's announcement of their ordered withdrawal from Kherson.

It said that Russian forces had to withdraw as they couldn't sustain their army after Ukrainian's damaged their resupply routes.

Russian troops will be "vulnerable" due to limited crossing points on the Dnipro river as they logistically face leaving Kherson.

It also estimated that withdrawal will take several days.

Image source, Reuters

With US midterm votes still being counted, President Joe Biden found time last night to comment on the war in Ukraine - saying Russia's decision to order a pullout from the Ukrainian city of Kherson shows its military has "some real problems".

He added he'd been expecting the move for "some time" and that it would allow both sides to "recalibrate their positions" over the winter.

The blow is significant to Russia because Kherson remains the only major city to have fallen to Russia since the war began.

Biden's political rivals previously vowed to review US military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. And with the Republicans likely to take control of the House of Representatives, this will be an issue many keep an eye on - both in Washington and Kyiv.

Russian forces swept across southern Ukraine from annexed Crimea at the start of the war in February, seizing Kherson city in early March.

But yesterday the Russian defence minister ordered the withdrawal of his forces from the city, and the west bank of the Dnipro river.

Russia's commander in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said it was no longer possible to keep supplying the city.

Kherson has been the biggest prize in Russia's invasion but Ukrainian forces have mounted a concerted counter offensive over recent weeks to try to recapture the city.

So this is the biggest setback yet for President Putin's invasion.

Over in Moscow, our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg has filmed a quick press preview, mopping up the Russian media's framing of the announced pullout from Kherson.

What's interesting, he notes, is the Kremlin's decision to distance President Putin from the decision - putting it all on the military men: Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Sergei Surovikin.

See that and more in Steve's clip below.

Image source, EPA

Let's hear from political scientist Mark Galeotti now, who describes Russia's withdrawal from Kherson as "making sense militarily" - and claims generals have wanted to do so for weeks.

Instead, President Putin has "stubbornly held on" for fear of political embarrassment, he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The author of Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine, says one of the most "striking" qualities of this war has been "Putin's desire to micromanage" - despite having barely any military experience himself.

It isn't yet clear whether Kherson signals a change in that - and Putin will now let the "generals do the generaling" - or if it's simply a one-off, Galeotti says.

But what is clear, he adds, is that after eight months there's been a "major shift in Putin trying to win this war to trying not to lose it".

Image source, Reuters

The most senior US general estimates that around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the war in Ukraine.

Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also suggested that around 40,000 civilians had died after being caught up in the conflict.

The estimates are the highest offered yet by a Western official.

But he observed that signs Kyiv was willing to re-enter talks with Moscow offered "a window" for negotiations.

In recent days, Ukraine has signalled a willingness to hold some discussions with Moscow, after President Volodymyr Zelensky dropped a demand that his opposite number, Vladimir Putin, must be removed from power before negotiations could resume.

Read more on the casualty figures here.

Image source, EVN

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country is moving "very carefully" following Russia's announcement that it plans to withdraw its troops from the southern city of Kherson.

Zelensky called for Ukrainians to be cautious, saying that their enemy did not give out gifts, and did not make "goodwill gestures".

Russia's announced pullout comes just weeks after President Putin said he was annexing Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions, none of which were wholly occupied by Russian forces.

The commander of Russia's forces in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, described the decision as difficult. He said defences would be consolidated to the east, on the other side of the Dnipro river from Kherson.

Welcome to our live coverage of events in Ukraine, as Russia's military orders its troops out of the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital it captured after invading in February.

Russia's commander in Ukraine, Gen Sergei Surovikin, said it was no longer possible to keep supplying the city.

The withdrawal means Russian forces will pull out entirely from the western bank of the Dnipro river, in what is a significant blow to Russia as it faces a Ukrainian counter-offensive.