Photo: Sgt. Brittany A. Chase/US Air Force Staff/DoD / Courtesy
The Russians have said they are withdrawing forces from around Ukraine’s capital city of kyiv, and so far, reports show that some but not many of the Russian forces have moved away from the area, Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby said at a news briefing Tuesday. .
Kirby discussed where those troops are going and why might not know This is not so much a sign of a willingness to end a bloody and illegal war, but rather a repositioning of forces elsewhere to focus on alternative military objectives and potentially most successful.
A real, credible, implwould require a complete withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine.
“You have an opportunity here, an opportunity that you have long missed. as, many times over the last month to end this war and to do so responsibly and to negotiate in good faith,” Kirby said. “We hope they do. But the war could end today if Mr. Putin did the right thing and actually withdraw all his forces from Ukraine and respect Ukrainian sovereignty.”
From From the beginning, the Russians have tried to mislead the world and their own people about their intentions for Ukraine, he pointed out.
We have seen that Russia has now tried for a month to sell this war of theirs to its national audience as a ‘liberation of Donbas’”
John F. Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary
“However, the intensified rhetoric over the last year and in the run-up to the invasion of Russia showed that the true intention of the Kremlin was to overthrow the democratically elected government and occupy or annex large portions of Ukraine”, highlighted the senior Defense Department official.
How Russia plans to achieve that goal
Kirby described a three-pronged approach to how the Department of Defense has assessed that Russia could have planned to achieve that goal.
In the North and Northeast, he said, the Russians concentrated their efforts on the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv.
“This whole northern grouping was really designed against the capital city, the effort to isolate to kyiv”, he said.
Down in the southern part of Ukraine, coming out of Crimea, the Russians divided their forces northeast against Mariupol and then northwest to Kherson, where they also tried to take Mykolayiv, which they have not been able to do.
In the east, in Donbas, there has already been conflict there for eight years and the Russians have put more resources there to further their goals.
All these efforts were believed to be part of a Russian effort to subjugate Ukraine. But so far, the effort has been unsuccessful, Kirby said.
“Now we think they are going to prioritize the east,” he said. “They have stagnated in the north, and the progress they had made in the early days in the south has now stalled.”
Despite of Russian promises to move out of kyiv, Kirby said, the city cannot be considered safe. He is still at risk from continued Russian aggression.
Kirby said that he is now gone clear what actions Russia will take next in Ukraine, or what its ultimate goals are there.
The Russian Defense Ministry reports, he said, have been misleading and amount to efforts to reframe recent missteps as intermediate steps to their ultimate goals.
“It is too early to judge what further action the Kremlin may take,” Kirby said. “No twist can mask what the world has witnessed over the last month, and that is the courage and military prowess of Ukraine’s armed forces and its people, who are proving more than Russia bargained for in their unprovoked invasion. and unjustified.”
Behind that military prowess, Kirby said, there are years of military training for Ukrainians by the United States, allied countries and partners, as well as the continuous material support that is provided, a support that will continue, he assured.
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