Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that following the return of Ukrainian forces to the southeastern Kherson region investigators uncovered hundreds of war crimes in areas freed from Russian occupation.
"Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on November 13. "The bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found."
He said that the "stabilization and the restoration of law" has been established in 226 settlements in the region, and that the arrests of Russian soldiers and mercenaries were continuing.
Zelenskiy earlier described the liberation of the regional capital, Kherson, as "a historic day," but officials warned of a difficult effort ahead even as a Russian-installed leader further east signaled another apparent retreat by Russian forces.
"Today is a historic day. We are returning Kherson," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on November 12, adding that "our defenders are on the outskirts of the city" and "special units are already in the city."
"Kherson residents have been waiting," he said. "They have never abandoned Ukraine. Hope for Ukraine is always justified, and Ukraine always returns its own."
Zelenskiy described "hellish" battles in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
There, reports suggested Russian and pro-Moscow forces were said to be continuing intense fighting to hold their ground.
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, claimed later on November 13 that its forces had captured a village called Mayorsk, near the town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had neutralized some 650 Russian troops on November 12 in a claim that was impossible to confirm but hinted at Kyiv's continuing confidence as it retakes territory formerly held by Russian troops.
RFE/RL cannot confirm battlefield claims on either side in areas of intense fighting.
Russian officials' announcement that their forces were withdrawing across the Dnieper River, which bisects the Kherson region and Ukraine, followed a seemingly hugely successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south.
The White House on November 12 hailed Russia's withdrawal from Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.
WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace predicted on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities have said they want to "stabilize" the area and face a difficult task in Kherson to disarm booby traps and other dangers, in addition to trying to secure water, electricity, and other basic necessities in a city held by Russian troops since early in the invasion that began in late February.
Zelenskiy said in his video address that Russian forces "everywhere have the same goal: to humiliate people as much as possible. But we will restore everything, believe me."
"Before fleeing from Kherson," he added, "the occupiers destroyed all the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity."
In Photos: Striking images from the Ukrainian advance south capture the raw emotion as locals welcome the return of their soldiers into the town of Snihurivka.
Tears, Joy On The Streets As Ukrainian Troops Push Toward Kherson
In another sign of Ukrainian pressure on occupying forces, the Russian-installed administration of the Kakhovka district east of Novaya Kherson on the left bank of the Dnieper River said on November 12 that it was moving its staff "to safer territory."
“The administration is the No. 1 target for Ukrainian attacks today,” the pro-Moscow leader, Pavel Filipchuk, said on Telegram.
The head of the Ukrainian regional administration in the southeastern area of Zaporizhzhya, which houses Europe's largest nuclear plant, said Russian troops had attacked a village there and "continues to terrorize the civilian population there with night shelling."
The shelling destroyed power lines, cars, and residential structures but no one was hurt, Oleksandr Starukh, head of the local administration, said via Telegram on November 13.
