Ukraine is suspicious of Russian promises

The Russian announcement that it would slow down combat operations near Kiev was met with skepticism in Ukraine and the West. “These signals do not dampen Russian shell explosions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Wednesday. The US Department of Defense sees the Russian announcement as a tactical maneuver and warns of a new military offensive in other parts of the country.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said there were only “a very small number” of Russian troops moving north of Kiev, away from the Ukrainian capital. “We are not prepared to believe the Russian justification that it is a withdrawal.” It is possible that the soldiers are only withdrawn from there to be sent to another part of Ukraine, such as the contested eastern region of Donbass. “We believe this is a repositioning, not a withdrawal, and that we should all be prepared to anticipate a major offensive against other parts of Ukraine.”

Kiev sees withdrawal of Russian troops only as a regroupment

The Ukrainian military leadership sees the withdrawal of Russian troops from the fronts north of Kiev as just a regroupment. The “so-called troop withdrawal” is yet another rotation of units aimed at deceiving the Ukrainian military leadership, the Ukrainian general staff said late on Wednesday. The Russian military withdrew some units from the areas around Kiev and Chernihiv, the situation report said.

Russia may continue to fire missiles at Kiev from afar, Kirby warned. “The threat to Kiev is not over,” Kirby said. After further peace talks with Ukraine, Russia pledged on Tuesday to significantly reduce its military operations near Kiev and Chernihiv. Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said after a meeting in Istanbul that his government wanted to build trust and allow new negotiations.

London: Russian offensive in Kiev failed

British military intelligence considers the Russian offensive to besiege the Ukrainian capital Kiev a failure, an update from the Defense Ministry has revealed. Furthermore, the Russian announcement to reduce military pressure on Kiev suggests that Russia has lost its initiative in the region. British military experts now consider it “highly likely” that Russia will shift its combat capability from northern Ukraine to the southeast. The offensive in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions must now be stepped up.

“Defending Ukraine is our number one task, everything else is derived from that,” Zelenskyy emphasized in his daily video speech. Only on this basis can negotiations with Russia continue. “The enemy is still in our territory.” The reality is that Ukrainian cities would continue to be besieged and bombed. Therefore, the Ukrainian armed forces are “the only guarantee of our survival,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukrainians are not naive.”

The United States is moving more warplanes and soldiers to Eastern Europe

In light of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the US military is redeploying more combat aircraft, transport aircraft and soldiers to Eastern Europe. A unit of about 200 US Marines was deployed to Lithuania after maneuvers in Norway, Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said. In addition, ten “F/A-18 Hornet” fighter aircraft and “a few” C-130 Hercules transport aircraft with around 200 associated troops would be brought to Eastern Europe from the US.

The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as a result of the Russian war of aggression is, according to the head of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, “a disaster on top of a disaster”. Even before the war, for example, there were severe famines in Yemen or in some parts of Africa, where it was only with great effort that it was possible to provide enough aid, Beasley told the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday. . Now the crisis in Ukraine has come on top of that. The country was changed in a few weeks “from the bread basket to bread snakes”.

US Department: Americans Can Be Detained in Russia

In an unusually stern travel advisory, the US State Department warned all Americans that if they travel to Russia, they could be detained by security authorities there. In view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “the potential for harassment of US citizens” by Russian security services has increased, as has the targeted isolation and detention of US citizens, the ministry said in the travel notice. “All US citizens residing or traveling in Russia must leave the country immediately,” he said.

This will be important on Wednesday

At a summit meeting with employers and unions on Wednesday, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil mainly wants to resolve practical issues related to the integration of Ukrainian refugees into the labor market. “We have already ensured that those people with a residence permit have the right to work,” the SPD politician told the Germany editorial network (RND). “For this to be really possible, very practical issues must now be resolved quickly and pragmatically.”