Few Ukrainians, who bought socks and extension cords in the main market of the largest city near the Kherson front on Thursday, could believe that the Russians were really withdrawing.

Russian generals have ordered their troops to abandon their main southern bastion and other positions on the west bank of the Dnipro River.

Wednesday’s televised announcement capped weeks of creeping progress by Ukrainian forces toward the largest city — and only regional capital — that Russia captured in the war.

Kherson provides Ukraine with a gateway to the Kremlin-annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Sea of ??Azov.

Its fall in the early days of the war consolidated Russia’s control over a vast swath of south-eastern Ukraine.

The withdrawal would show President Vladimir Putin little of his invasion other than Russia being ostracized by the western world.

Suspicion that the Russians were up to some ruse therefore circulated among Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv and Mykolayiv shoppers in the Central Market.

“Why would they just get up and leave after eight months of defending it with all their might?” asked mechanic Igor Kosorotov.

“I think that would be the height of stupidity. That doesn’t make sense to me,” said the 59-year-old.

Mykolaiv people have reason to doubt the Russians.

Military officials say the river port was bombed 80 percent of the time during the war.

Many of the Soviet-era skyscrapers stand with blown-out windows and soot-covered walls in places where fires raged after air raids.

The city’s eastern outskirts are littered with the rusting remains of Russian armored vehicles that tried and failed to take the city in late February.

“How can you trust a thing they say?” prompted the driver Volodymyr Vypritskiy among stalls with vegetables and winter hats.

“How can you trust people who always told us they were our brothers? People who start killing their brothers – can you really believe them?” asked the 55-year-old.

The Kremlin initially argued that Russians and Ukrainians were one people split into two nations by geopolitical mistakes.

The logic changed when Moscow started calling Ukraine’s leaders Nazis who needed to be deposed for the nation’s sake.

Many in the Mykolayiv market didn’t even know that Russia had ordered a withdrawal from Kherson.

Ukraine has banned Russian television and urged people not to trust a word from Moscow during the war.

This has fueled suspicions that news of the withdrawal is part of some sort of misinformation campaign by the Kremlin.

Seller Svitlana Kyrychenko said she never heard Moscow’s announcement but had friends who told her the Russians were actually fortifying Kherson.

“No one will just give us something like that back,” said the 54-year-old.

“I have friends who have a friend in Kherson and she said there are more Russian troops in Kherson.”

Ukraine announced on Thursday that its forces have recaptured a dozen villages in a region stretching more than 200 square kilometers (75 sq mi) around the city of Kherson.

But it remained unclear whether the Russians had left the city themselves.

Satellite images show the Russians digging several defensive trenches on the east bank of the Dnipro River.

The positions give the Russians a perfect position to shell Ukrainian forces should they enter the deserted city.

Mechanic Kosorotov said he was sure the Russians would destroy Kherson before allowing Ukraine to retake it.

“They will just turn Kherson into rubble and that’s it,” he said. “They will sink it in the river.”

But retired teacher Nina Belova said she was too exhausted from life in wartime to pay much attention to breaking news from the front lines.

“My elevator hasn’t worked since the first day of the war and I live on the ninth floor,” says the 78-year-old.

“What condition can I be in? I’m just a bundle of nerves.”