Russia announced this Wednesday that it is reorganizing its group forces around Kyiv and Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, where the Defense Ministry said it had fulfilled its main objectives as part of the ongoing Russian military campaign.
“A planned redeployment of troops is taking place around Kyiv and Chernihiv,” Russian defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. After yesterday’s negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, Moscow announced that it would reduce offensive pressure on both cities.
According to Konashenkov, “during the first stage of the special military operation conducted by the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of the Donbas and Ukrainewas planned to force the enemy to concentrate their forces, resources and equipment on the defense of large cities”, including the capital.
“To handcuff them on the battlefield, without attacking those cities, to avoid civilian casualties and inflicting such a defeat on the army of the Kiev regime that would not allow him to use these forces for the main objective of our forces, Donbass,” added the military spokesman.
“All of these goals have been achieved,” he said. Simultaneously, Russia has achieved another goal, he said, which consists in stopping “the flow of Ukrainian reinforcements” to the western and central regions of the country and creating the necessary conditions for “the final stage of the liberation operation of the Donbass People’s Republics”.
To this end, the main lines of communication and supply of the Kiev forces, as well as the arrival of reinforcements, were brought under control. “Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems, airfield infrastructure, major military depots, training centers and concentration centers for mercenaries were destroyed,” he said, adding “This work continues.”
Crimea and Donbass, untouchables
The Russian chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, warned Ukraine that the status of the two annexed peninsula crimea from the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose independence has been recognized by the Kremlin are untouchable for Russia.
“I would like to emphasize that our country’s principled position on Crimea and Donbass remains unchanged.Medinski said in a statement on public television.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy reflected on this last night “positive”. Negotiations between the two sides took place in Istanbul on Tuesday.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be guaranteed. There can and will be no compromises on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak stated this last night Kyiv offered Moscow a fifteen-year period to negotiate the status of Crimea. Annexed by Russia in 2014.
As for the Donbas, three days before the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Both Putin and the separatist leaders emphasized this Their goal is to regain control of the entire administrative area of the Donetsk and Luhansk regionsaccording to the Ukrainian Constitution.
Exactly, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured on Tuesday that the Russian army will now focus on conquering the entire Donbass. Medinski, who returned from Istanbul last night, where the fifth round of negotiations, He stressed that “yesterday, for the first time in many years, the Kiev authorities expressed their willingness to reach an agreement with Russia.”
That is, he added: “Ukraine has shown its willingness to meet the main demands that Russia has been insisting on in recent years.” Resignation of Ukraine to join NATO, to belong to it military blocs, on nuclear weapons and on the possession, acquisition or development of other weapons of mass destruction and on hosting foreign military bases or contingents.
In addition, he highlightedKyiv would also undertake to organize military maneuvers involving foreign forces only with the consensus of all international guarantors of its security, including eleven countries, including Russia.
“If those commitments are met, then the threat of creation on Ukrainian territory is eliminated a NATO platform,” he stressed.
Medinski specified that Kyiv was handed over to Moscow “put down on paper the principles of a possible and future agreement”.
“The work goes on, the negotiations go on,” he said.
According to the press, Russia would have renounced demands such as the “denazification” of Ukraine and the status of the Russian language in the negotiations. This was also announced by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexandr Fomin in Istanbul Russia would reduce its military activities around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv
“Partial withdrawal” of Russian troops from Kyiv
The spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, said Efe that there was such a thing a “partial withdrawal of enemy units” on the outskirts of Kyiv, a day after Russia promised to reduce its troops’ presence in the capital.
“However, we cannot yet speak of a large-scale withdrawal,” the spokesman clarified in statements to Efe, who pointed out that “it is too early to know what Russia’s intentions are”.
The colonel pointed out that these Russian units are located in the center of the country they retreat to the east, to Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts, in line with recent Russian statements that they had already completed the “first phase of the operation”.
“We can confirm this information because we have seen that they concentrate their activities there. The enemy’s offensive attempts didn’t stop there,” the defense spokesman said, explaining the situation in eastern Donbass, where a low-intensity civil war with pro-Russian militias has been waged since 2014.
Motuzyanyk noticed that Taking a city like Kyiv requires hundreds of thousands of troops, which Russia currently does not have, and that “the enemy” also failed in its attempt to dominate strategic Odessawhere they have only managed to launch “reconnaissance operations” with small attacks from the coast to find out from where Ukraine is reacting.
According to the spokesman, in the Russian-occupied territories, mainly in the Donbass, his troops “continue to use high-precision weapons to destroy critical infrastructure across Ukraine,” in addition to organizing the dispatch of reinforcements and maintaining repression against civilians in an “attempt to impose an occupation authority in the areas they temporarily control”.
“The enemy is deploying long-range, operational and tactical aircraft. Russian Su-34 bombers fired missiles at targets in the Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkov and Donetsk regions.” According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense during this war The Russian army lost more than 17,300 soldiers, 605 tanks, 1,723 armored vehicles, 131 aircraft and the same number of helicopters.