This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson here

The absence of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in connection with announcements about his forces’ retreat from key areas of Ukraine is being discussed by commentators.

The distance has been deliberate, writes New York Times national correspondent Neil MacFarquhar, who adds:

With each new pronounced setback in Ukraine, however, it is getting harder for Mr. Putin to separate himself from the whiff of failure, which is gradually eroding his image as a decisive, indomitable leader.

There is a withdrawal of Russian troops to more fortified positions. But there were still populated points where we saw battles.

They withdraw because they suffer losses, very heavy losses. What’s more, they don’t even take the bodies of their soldiers and leave the wounded behind.

Video shows Ukraine’s forces about nine miles from city centre but Kyiv unable to confirm Russian retreat

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukrainian forces were closing on the outskirts of Kherson city, as Russia said on Thursday it had begun its retreat from the southern city announced the previous day.

Hours after claiming the liberation of the key town of Snihurivka, images emerged of relaxed-looking soldiers from Ukraine’s 28th Mechanized Brigade with a Ukrainian flag in Kyslivka, a village just outside Klapaya and about nine miles (15km) from Kherson’s city centre.

With Russia still in control of a large swathe of occupied territory, Ukraine may encounter unexpected resistance as it tries to push south

On the face of it, Russia’s sheepish yet televised announcement that it will abandon Kherson city and points west of the Dnipro represents a remarkable victory for Ukraine and a sophisticated military strategy. If the withdrawal does indeed lead to the swift recapture of the city, the Ukrainians will have done so with relatively little loss of life and without what could have been costly urban warfare.

From the moment the Russian advance was stopped south of Mykolaiv in the spring, the invaders’ position on the west bank was obviously strategically vulnerable. But it has taken a careful three-month campaign to force the Kremlin to conclude it cannot hang on. This began with the targeting of Russian logistics on both sides of the river with Himars and other longer-range rocket artillery, then turned to targeting strategic bridges, and then the pontoons that the Russians had built to resupply their forces in the cross-river pocket.

Loss of only regional capital captured by Moscow since invasion began will come as significant blow to Vladimir Putin

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has ordered the country’s troops to leave an area including Ukraine’s city of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Moscow since the February invasion.

A Ukrainian victory in in the city, one of the main objectives of Kyiv’s southern offensive, would be widely seen as a significant blow to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, only weeks after a high-profile ceremony in Moscow in which he announced the “forever” annexation of the Kherson region, along with three others.

Denys Shmyhal says no reason to evacuate any city not near frontlines; Kyiv refuses to negotiate until Russian troops have left its territory. This live blog is now closed

• At a glance: what we know on day 258 of the invasion

The state-owned Russian RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that the Russian-installed authorities in occupied Kherson claim to have arrested nine people they claim are Ukrainian special forces (SBU) who were planning sabotage operations.

Russia’s security forces, the FSB, are quoted as saying:

On the territory of the Kherson region, the activities of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the SBU , whose tasks included the commission of terrorist acts against high-ranking members of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, were exposed and suppressed.

As part of operational measures, more than five kilograms of plastic [explosive], electric detonators, actuators, three grenades ready for use by the Ukrainian military, small arms and ammunition, as well as special reconnaissance equipment were seized from the detainees.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London

Survivor tells of being abandoned to attack near Makiivka, as anger grows in Russia over death toll from war

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Hours after Aleksei Agafonov arrived in the Luhansk region on 1 November as part of a battalion of new conscripts, his unit were handed shovels and ordered to dig trenches throughout the night.

Their digging, which they took turns to do because of the lack of available shovels, was abruptly interrupted in the early hours of the next day as Ukrainian artillery lit up the sky and shells started raining down on Agafonov and his unit.