Russia Abandons March on Kyiv, Focuses Embattled Troops Instead on Donbas

[Guno צְבִי]

Russia appears to have abandoned its plan to seize and hold the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv, several officials said Friday, as Moscow faces mounting battlefield casualties and a surprising level of resistance from Ukraine’s armed forces.

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday afternoon that the Russian army, bogged down along several axes across the former Soviet state it invaded last month, has reset its dwindling military resources on the Donbas instead. The region of eastern Ukraine composed of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, or administrative divisions, has been the site of an existing, protracted, Russia-backed conflict by supposed separatist forces since 2014. Russia appears to believe that greater control in what it has long considered breakaway regions persecuted by Kyiv will strengthen its position in future negotiations regarding Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...embattled-troops-instead-on-donbas/ar-AAVv68v

 

[Guno צְבִי]

Russia has lost partial control of first captured Ukrainian city

Russian forces are no longer in full control of Kherson, the first key Ukrainian city Kremlin troops captured as part of its invasion into the country, a senior U.S. defense official said Friday.

"We've seen reports of resistance there in areas that were previously reported to be in Russian control," the official told reporters. "We can't corroborate exactly who is in control of Kherson, but the point is it doesn't appear to be as solidly in Russian control as it was before. . . . we would argue that Kherson is actually contested territory again."

The official said Ukrainian forces are fighting to take back control of the vital port city located northwest of Crimea.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...l-of-first-captured-ukrainian-city/ar-AAVv6tj

 

[Tranquillus in Exile]

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday afternoon that the Russian army ... has reset its dwindling military resources on the Donbas

There have been some suggestions that this may be a feint to give the Russian army time to regroup elsewhere. God knows they need it.