A view shows an armored convoy of pro-Russian troops during the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the road leading to the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 28, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The Russian military has begun moving some of its troops in Ukraine from areas around Kyiv to positions elsewhere in Ukraine, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Tuesday. part of a change of strategy during their month-long invasion of Ukraine.
“Until recently, we assessed that their plan was to occupy and annex Ukraine using approaches along three lines of attack,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon. . “Now we think they will prioritize the east” of Ukraine.
Russian military convoys “have stalled in the north” around the capital, he said, while the initial Russian progress south has also “stagnated”.
US officials said a few days ago that Russian troops had stopped seizing new strongholds around Kyiv, and were instead digging up defensive positions.
According to Kirby, it looks like at least some of them, a “small number”, are actually leaving.
“Russia has failed in its goal of capturing Kyiv,” he said. “It has failed in its goal of conquering Ukraine.”
However, Kirby cautioned that troop movements did not mean retreat, as some observers had speculated. “We believe this is a repositioning, not an actual withdrawal,” Kirby said. “And that we should all be prepared for a major attack on other parts of Ukraine.”
Kirby was speaking hours after a member of the Russian negotiating team in Istanbul announced that the Defense Ministry had decided to “at times, radically reduce military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernikyiv.”
The Kremlin official stated that the reduction in military activity was aimed at “increasing mutual trust and creating the necessary conditions for further negotiations.”
Service members of the pro-Russian army are seen atop armored vehicles during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Dokuchaievsk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine March 28, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
Markets rallied early Tuesday on news of “reduced military activity” amid hopes that Russia’s claims mean the brutal and costly invasion will soon end.
But leaders on both sides of the Atlantic were quick to dismiss the idea that Putin and the Kremlin were acting in good faith.
“We’ll see,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday in response to a question about Russia’s commitment to reducing the size of its troops in the north. “I didn’t read anything about it until I saw what their actions were,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“In the meantime, we will continue to maintain strong sanctions,” Biden said. “We will continue to provide the Ukrainian military with the ability to defend themselves. And we will continue to closely monitor what is happening.”
Mr. Biden made the remarks after a call Tuesday morning with the leaders of Italy, Germany, Britain and France to discuss Ukraine. After the call, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said he had given very little information about Russia’s claim to be downsizing attacks around Kyiv.
“We have to judge Putin’s regime by their actions, not their words,” Johnson told other leaders on the call. “Putin is cutting a knife into Ukraine’s open wounds in an attempt to force the country and its allies to surrender.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with members of the government via a video link at his Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, March 23, 2022.
Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron was also in the call on Tuesday, and he later spoke with Putin. According to the Kremlin, Putin and Macron discussed the “grave humanitarian situation” in the city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian troops for several weeks.
In a sign of Putin’s refusal to admit guilt for causing suffering in eastern Ukraine, the Russian president told Macron that the humanitarian situation in Mariupol – where thousands of civilians have been killed by Russian troops – will did not improve until “Ukrainian nationalist fighters “stopped ‘resisting’ and disarmed.
Given that Ukrainian troops are fighting on Ukrainian soil, Putin’s request for them to hand over weapons to Russian soldiers is highly skeptical.
A Russian army soldier stands next to locals lining up to receive humanitarian aid during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, at the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 23, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
Western officials will be watching closely in the coming days to see if Russian troops move into eastern Ukraine and if Russia expands. conscription to duty More troops, a decision Putin is expected to make on April 1.
It remains unclear whether more troops will give the Kremlin a strategic advantage over the enthusiastically campaigned Ukrainians.
“No spin can cover what the world has seen over the past month,” said Kirby.
“And that is the courage and military might of the armed forces and the people of Ukraine.”
