Just last month, Russia announced it had formally annexed four regions in eastern Ukraine.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin said the people of those regions would now be Russian

forever.

Now, on paper, the annexation included the entire region around the key city of Heirson.

But now, it looks like that annexation might not be forever, after all, at least not in

Heirson. Because this week, Defense Minister Sergei Shogu looked resigned as he announced

a difficult decision on Russian TV.

With Ukrainian forces closing in, Shogu ordered Russian troops out of the city of Heirson

to the eastern bank of the Nipro River.

And Pyrrhaz Jason Bobian explains just how big of a setback this was for Russia.

This is the only regional capital that Russia has seized in this military campaign this

year. Russian troops actually put up the Russian flag in Heirson on February 25th, one

day after the invasion started.

So losing Heirson, it's a huge embarrassment for Moscow.

And if Ukraine does take back Heirson City, it comes on the heels of some other significant

victories by Ukrainian troops, particularly rapid counteroffensives that took huge swathes

of the Harkiv region in the east.

But despite that major setback, he says, Russia's war in Ukraine is far from over.

We can expect that Russia is going to dig in on the East Bank of the River.

There's already signs that they're doing that.

And I should point out that some of the most intense fighting in the war right now,

not to downplay what's happening around Heirson because it's significant in the south,

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