BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukrainian residents took to the streets of Kherson on Friday to unfurl their national flag outside government buildings, Ukrainian officials and civilians said, as Russian forces scrambled to escape to more secure territory across the Dnipro River and Kyiv's troops continued to advance on the key southern city.


Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the retreat of all troops to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River was complete. However, residents of Kherson said on Friday morning that some Russian soldiers were still present in the city, dressed in civilian clothes.


That did not stop people from going to government buildings in a show of defiance as they waited for the Ukrainian military to enter the city in force.
"The people of Kherson are waiting," Ukraine's Parliament said in a post on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photograph showing people with Ukrainian flags in front of the regional administration building. "Moment for the future history books!"


Photographs shared with The New York Times by residents showed several dozen people outside the main government building waving flags and wrapping the base of a statue outside the building in blue and gold. They added a flag of the European Union above the pedestal where a statue of Lenin once stood.


The retreat from Kherson is a bitter blow for the Kremlin, and if Ukrainian forces can gain full control of the city, it will be one of the most significant accomplishments of the Ukrainian military since Russia invaded in late February. Kherson was the only provincial capital Russia had captured since invading, and it was a major link in Russia's effort to control the southern coastline along the Black Sea.


The dramatic scenes in Kherson came fewer than 48 hours after Russia's defense minister announced that Russian troops in the city would withdraw. After ordering all civilians to leave towns and villages in the region last month and engaging in a systematic effort to loot museums, government building, hospitals and homes, Russian forces this week blew up bridges and laid a vast network of mines to slow the Ukrainian advance as they abandoned long-held defensive positions west of Kherson city.


Even as its soldiers fled, the Kremlin said that it still considered Kherson — which President Vladimir V. Putin illegally annexed in September — to be a part of Russia.


"This is a Russian region," Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, told reporters on Friday. "It has been legally fixed and defined. There can be no changes here."


As he spoke, Ukrainian soldiers continued to move through towns and villages in the region, greeted joyously by tearful residents who had endured nine months occupation.


Oleh Voitsehovsky, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, said he had seen no Russian troops or equipment in his zone along the front fewer than four miles north of Kherson city.


"The Russians left all the villages," he said. "We looked at dozens of villages with our drones and didn't see a single car. We don't see how they are leaving. They retreat quietly, at night."


But the remaining residents of Kherson were still awaiting the arrival of Ukrainian troops.


The apparent final hours of the Russian occupation overnight Thursday to Friday featured several explosions and were chaotic and disorienting, according to residents of Kherson reached by telephone on Friday morning.


Serhiy, a retiree living in the city who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages that conditions in the city had unraveled overnight.


"At night, a building burned in the very center, but it was not possible even to call the fire department," he wrote. "There was no phone signal, no electricity, no heating and no water."


"I am waiting for our army," he said.


While there was no visible Russian military presence in the city on Friday, four residents described seeing Russian soldiers dressed in civilian clothes — some armed — moving about parts of the city.


Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia may have left a contingent of soldiers behind disguised as civilians to engage the Ukrainians in street battles or stage sabotage operations.


"Enemy troops are hastily packing into boats that appear suitable for crossing and trying to escape," the Ukrainian military said on Friday morning.


It said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and shelling the advancing Ukrainians across the river.

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