Dhe Russian announcement that it would slow down combat operations near Kyiv was met with skepticism in Ukraine and the West. “These signals do not drown out the explosions of Russian shells,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday night. 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 has only been “a very small number” of Russian troops moving north of Kyiv 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 It is possible that the soldiers would only be withdrawn there to be deployed in another part of Ukraine, such as the contested eastern Donbass region . “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.”
Kyiv sees Russian troop withdrawal only as a regrouping
The Ukrainian military leadership sees the withdrawal of Russian troops from the fronts north of Kyiv only as a regrouping. The “so-called troop withdrawal” is more of a rotation of units intended to deceive the Ukrainian military leadership, the Ukrainian general staff said on Wednesday night. The Russian military had withdrawn some units from the areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv, the situation report said.
Russia could continue to fire missiles at Kyiv from afar, Kirby warned. “The threat to Kyiv is not over,” Kirby said. After new peace talks with Ukraine, Russia pledged on Tuesday to significantly reduce its military operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv. Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said after a meeting in Istanbul that his government wanted to build trust and enable further negotiations.
London: Russian offensive at Kyiv failed
British military intelligence considers the Russian offensive to encircle the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv a failure, a Defense Ministry update has revealed. In addition, the Russian announcement to reduce military pressure on Kyiv suggests that Russia has lost its initiative in the region. British military experts now considered it “highly likely” that Russia would shift its combat capability from northern Ukraine to the southeast. The offensive in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions should now be stepped up there.
“The defense of Ukraine is our number one task, everything else is derived from it,” emphasized Zelenskyy in his daily video address. Only on this basis can negotiations with Russia continue. “The enemy is still on our territory.” The reality is that the Ukrainian cities would continue to be besieged and shelled. 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 view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the US armed forces are relocating more combat aircraft, transport aircraft and soldiers to Eastern Europe. A unit of around 200 US Marines had been deployed to Lithuania after maneuvers in Norway, Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said. In addition, ten “F/A-18 Hornet” combat aircraft and “a few” C-130 Hercules transport aircraft with around 200 associated soldiers would be brought to Eastern Europe from the USA.
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 hunger crises in Yemen or in some places in Africa, where it was only with great effort that sufficient help could be given, 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 within a few weeks “from the bread basket to bread snakes”.
US Department: Americans could be detained in Russia
In an unusually harsh travel warning, the US State Department has warned all Americans that if they travel to Russia, they could be detained by the 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 well as the targeted isolating and detention of US citizens, the ministry said in the travel warning. “All US citizens residing or traveling in Russia should leave the country immediately,” it said.
That will be important on Wednesday
At a summit meeting with employers and trade unions this Wednesday, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil primarily wants to resolve practical issues relating to the labor market integration of Ukrainian refugees. “We have already made sure that these people with the residence permit have the right to work,” the SPD politician told the editorial network Germany (RND). “In order for this to actually be possible, very practical questions must now be solved quickly and pragmatically.”
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