TOP HEADLINES

· Russia's defense ministry says it has completed the withdrawal of troops from the western bank of the Dnipro river in Ukraine's southern Kherson region. "Not a single unit of military equipment or weapons have been left on the right bank. All Russian servicemen crossed to the left bank," it said in a statement. READ MORE BELOW

· A regional official said Ukrainian partisans had raised a flag in Kherson city, but that many Russian troops had been unable to leave, while the Ukrainian armed forces said they were in the final stage of reclaiming the right bank of the Dnipro River.

· The Kremlin said it still viewed the Kherson region as "part of Russia," that the region's status was "fixed" and no changes were possible.

· Amid the withdrawal, Kyiv's troops have reclaimed dozens of landmine-littered abandoned settlements, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

· Ukrainian military said Russian forces were proceeding with offensives near Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and near Novopavlivsk in the Mykolaiv region.

· President Vladimir Putin will not attend a meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 nations in person next week but may join virtually, Russian and Indonesian officials said.

· U.S. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington was not pressuring Ukraine to engage in diplomacy with Russia over the war despite suggestions the U.S. wants Kyiv to rejoin negotiations.

· Talks between a Russian delegation and senior UN officials to address Moscow's problems with the Black Sea grains export deal kicked off in Geneva on Friday.

· The Kremlin said that it always takes prisoner swap proposals with the U.S. seriously after Washington said it expected Putin to express a willingness to engage in talks.

IN DETAIL

Ukraine close to retaking Kherson

Moscow announced on Friday that its forces had completed their withdrawal from the strategic city of Kherson after Ukraine said it had reclaimed dozens of landmine-littered settlements abandoned by the Russians in the south.

The Russian defense ministry said it had finished the pullout, Russia's state TASS news agency reported, two days after Moscow announced its withdrawal.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov had said on Thursday it would take at least a week for Russia to pull out of Kherson, estimating Russia still had 40,000 troops in the region, with its forces still in and around the city.

Ukrainian partisans have allegedly raised a flag there, but claimed that many Russian troops had been unable to leave.

READ MORE: Why is the strategic city of Kherson so important

Serhiy Khlan, a member of Ukraine's regional council for Kherson, said a large number of Russian soldiers had drowned trying to escape Kherson, while others had changed into civilian clothes and were trying to hide.

The city was almost under the control of Ukrainian forces, he said, advising residents not to leave their homes while searches for remaining Russian troops were being carried out.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an overnight address that his forces had retaken 41 settlements as they advanced through the south, indicating one of the fastest and most dramatic shifts of control in the conflict.

Ukraine's general staff said it was keeping its latest movements under wraps but listed 12 settlements it said had been freed as of Wednesday: one of them, Blagodatne, lies around 30 km (20 miles) from the center of Kherson, a port at the mouth of the Dnipro river.

"Offensive actions in the specified direction continue," it said in a Friday update. "Due to the safety of the operation, the official announcement of the results will be made later."

Video editor: Butchy Davy