Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty in speech denouncing West

Russia’s defense minister and top commander in Ukraine announced Wednesday that Russian troops will pull back from the key city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

Defense minister Sergey Shoigu said he accepted a proposal from Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin to order Russian forces to retreat to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, in effect abandoning the city of Kherson.

Surovikin said it was a “very difficult decision” and justified it as necessary to save the lives of Russian soldiers and to preserve their capacity for future operations.

“Besides that, it frees up part of the forces and resources, which will be employed for active actions, including offensive, in other directions,” Surovikin said in the televised meeting with Shoigu.

Kherson is the only regional capital the Russians have occupied since 2014. The city and the surrounding area act as a gateway to Crimea Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star detained in Russia, has been transferred to a penal colony, a move decried by White House officials.

"Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement early Wednesday. "As the Administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the President has directed the Administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony."

Griner's lawyers said in a statement that she was transferred on Nov. 4 from a detention center in Iksha. She's now on her way to a penal colony in an undisclosed location.

"We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination," the lawyers, Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said in a statement. "In accordance with the standard Russian procedure the attorneys, as well as the U.S. Embassy, should be notified upon her arrival at her destination."

The White House said it had made a "significant offer" to Russian officials to "resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions of American citizens."

"In the subsequent weeks, despite a lack of good faith negotiation by the Russians, the U.S. Government has continued to follow up on that offer and propose alternative potential ways forward with the Russians through all available channels," Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

She added, "The U.S. Government is unwavering in its commitment to its work on behalf of Brittney and other Americans detained in Russia -- including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan."

-ABC News' Cindy Smith, Ahmad Hemingway and Tanya Stukalova

Moscow is closely "following" the midterm elections in the United States and knows that some Republican candidates have proposed to cut the country's military aid to Ukraine, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko.

"Naturally, we are following the developments in the United States," Grushko said in an interview with Russian state-owned television network Zvezda on Tuesday. "We are aware that a number of prominent Republicans favor reducing the military assistance to Ukraine, because they proceed from the position that what Democrats are currently doing is irrational."

If Republicans are triumphant, Grushko said, the U.S. Congress could ramp up pressure on European nations regarding their defense budgets.

"We remember that one of [former U.S. President Donald] Trump's key slogans when he came to power was that the Europeans should pay for their defense themselves," he added. "Largely thanks to his efforts, European countries took enhanced commitments to increase their defense budgets to 2%. And there have been talks that defense spending should now reach at least 3%. The United States will continue to pursue the policy it has been running since 1949."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the notion of holding "genuine peace talks" in his daily address to his nation on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy set out conditions for peace talks with the Russians, requiring the restoration of territorial integrity, compensation for all damages caused to his country, punishment of every war criminal and guarantees that another Russian invasion will not happen again.

"These are completely understandable conditions," Zelenskyy said.

He said that earlier Tuesday he gave a virtual speech to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt, telling dozens of world leaders of the ongoing Russian aggression.

"Anyone who is serious about the climate agenda should also be serious about the need to immediately stop Russian aggression, restore our territorial integrity and force Russia into genuine peace negotiations," Zelenskyy said.

He added that previous proposals from Ukraine for peace talks have prompted "insane Russian responses with new terrorist attacks, shelling or blackmail."