[Goose]

Agreed Goose, hopefully Ukraine is pushing faster than Russia is retreating, which given the Dnipro, might be possible.  The one thing I wonder is whether Russia has had started the full scale retreat weeks ago, and that there are only smaller pockets of spoiling troops left.

Russia has pulled out troops from the right bank for a couple of months, along with material. However, they have also sent troops and some material in the other direction. Ukraine believes there are still 20,000 troops in the immediate area of Kherson. So yes, the retreat has been going on for a while, but not full speed. There are plenty of Russians left. What the Russian plan to get them out in one piece may be, nobody knows. It is also worth noting there are lots of Russians on the right bank further up the river from Kherson, and those troops will need to retreat too.

Only time will tell for all of these, but at the very least, it seems certain Ukraine will take back the city of Kherson and all occupied land West of the Dnipro.

That has been "certain" (given that in war nothing is certain) for several months. What is still at issue is how much damage Ukraine can do to Russia in the process. Nobody wants to see Russia extract a significant force that will have to be destroyed later on the left bank where supplies are harder to cut off. Putin probably will survive a retreat from Kherson, partly because it has been a slow-motion one. A debacle with many thousand casualties/prisoners is another case.

[Goose]

Agreed Goose, hopefully Ukraine is pushing faster than Russia is retreating, which given the Dnipro, might be possible.  The one thing I wonder is whether Russia has had started the full scale retreat weeks ago, and that there are only smaller pockets of spoiling troops left.

Russia has pulled out troops from the right bank for a couple of months, along with material. However, they have also sent troops and some material in the other direction. Ukraine believes there are still 20,000 troops in the immediate area of Kherson. So yes, the retreat has been going on for a while, but not full speed. There are plenty of Russians left. What the Russian plan to get them out in one piece may be, nobody knows. It is also worth noting there are lots of Russians on the right bank further up the river from Kherson, and those troops will need to retreat too.

Only time will tell for all of these, but at the very least, it seems certain Ukraine will take back the city of Kherson and all occupied land West of the Dnipro.

That has been "certain" (given that in war nothing is certain) for several months. What is still at issue is how much damage Ukraine can do to Russia in the process. Nobody wants to see Russia extract a significant force that will have to be destroyed later on the left bank where supplies are harder to cut off. Putin probably will survive a retreat from Kherson, partly because it has been a slow-motion one. A debacle with many thousand casualties/prisoners is another case.