After a negotiating meeting in Turkey on Tuesday, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said that The Russian army will step down radically Military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Both the Ukrainian defense and US intelligence now confirm that the troops have been withdrawn.
BBC It is reported that the Ukrainian General Staff wrote on its Facebook page that Russian units are on their way away from Kyiv and Chernihiv.
The General Staff says it believes the withdrawal is a “rotation of individual units”.
They believe that the intention of the Russians is to mislead the Ukrainian military leadership and create a false picture of the situation.
Critical Threats of War and AEI/NRK Study Institute (Updated 30.03.2022)
We call it reassembly
The US Department of Defense has also recorded that some Russian forces are on their way away from the two cities. However, they think it is a recompilation.
We are seeing a small number of troops moving away from Kyiv, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, adding that this cannot be described as a withdrawal.
We think they might consider reprioritizing elsewhere, Kirby said.
On Wednesday morning, British intelligence confirmed the withdrawal of some Russian forces to Russia and Belarus.
The British believed that these were forces that had incurred heavy losses and that they were retreating to reorganize and obtain new supplies.
Don’t trust Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said he was skeptical.
He said in a video address on Wednesday evening that Ukraine will continue the negotiation process.
At the same time, he stressed the lack of confidence in “the words that come from the representatives of the country who continue to fight for our destruction.”
Broken bridges in the Kyiv suburb of Irbin.
Photo: Video obtained by Reuters/Reuters
Under pressure outside Kyiv
And the Russian forces are under pressure for several days in the areas where it is withdrawing partially now.
According to British intelligence, Erbin, Potsia and Hostomil – the outskirts of Kyiv – were captured in whole or in part.
Elsewhere, too, the Russians are on the defensive. At the end of this week, it became clear that the Ukrainian forces had recaptured the city of Trostianets, which is not far from the border with Russia.
Trostjanets was one of the first cities to be conquered by the Russians after the invasion.
Attack in Luhansk
This weekend, Russia said it would now focus on controlling territory in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
On Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region reported that Russian forces had launched a powerful artillery attack.
The city of Lyschansk should be under protection. The governor wrote on Telegram that apartment buildings had been bombed and many people were injured or killed.
Rescue workers are now working to get survivors out of the rubble.
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