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| Reuters |
Russia says it will focus its invasion of Ukraine on "liberating" the east, signalling a possible shift in its strategy.
The defence ministry said that the initial aims of the war were complete, and that Russia had reduced the combat capacity of Ukraine.
Russia's invasion appeared aimed
at swiftly capturing major cities and toppling the government.
But it has stalled in the face of
fierce Ukrainian resistance.
"The main tasks of the first
stage of the operation have been carried out," said Sergei Rudskoy, head
of the General Staff's main operations administration.
"The combat capabilities of
the Ukrainian armed forces have been substantially reduced, which allows us to
concentrate our main efforts on achieving the main goal: the liberation of
Donbas," he added, referring to an area in eastern Ukraine largely in the
hands of Russian-backed separatists.
Russia's military has been
bombarding and trying to encircle key Ukrainian cities such as the capital
Kyiv, which Gen Rudskoy characterised as an attempt to tie down Ukraine's
forces elsewhere in the country while Russia focuses on the east.
Ukraine's President, Volodymyr
Zelensky, said his troops had landed "powerful blows" on Russia and
called on Moscow to recognise the need for serious peace talks.
"By restraining Russia's
actions, our defenders are leading the Russian leadership to a simple and
logical idea: talk is necessary. Meaningful. Urgent. Fair. For the sake of the
result, not for the sake of the delay," he said.
The exact end goal of Russia's
invasion has not been made explicit, but President Vladimir Putin described the
aims as the "demilitarisation" and "denazification" of
Ukraine, characterising the government's leaders as a neo-Nazi junta killing
millions in a genocide of Russian speakers.
The claims have no basis and
Ukraine and its Western allies dismiss them as a pretext to carry out an
unprovoked war.
Russian troops first tried to
encircle the capital Kyiv. But after bombarding and then seizing several towns
to the north-west they were forced back by Ukraine's military, which is now
trying to surround thousands of Russian soldiers.
In a US assessment on Friday, a
defence official said that Russia had made no progress in its advance on
Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, and that Ukraine could recapture
Kherson.
Russia's army has had greater
success in the south, seizing towns and cities such as Kherson, and making some
gains in the east.
Moscow now claims 93% of the
Donbas region of Luhansk is under the control of Russian-backed separatists,
with 54% of the other part of Donbas, Donetsk, in their hands. More than a
third of the entire area was under separatist control before the war began.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff
to Ukraine's President Zelensky, cautioned against the suggestion that Russia
had abandoned plans to seize the rest of Ukraine. "It's a big danger
before war is finished to make a public prognosis, especially when you are
fighting against one of the biggest armies in the world," Mr Yermak told the
Financial Times.
Russia's announcement that it
will focus on the "liberation of the Donbas" is likely to mean a more
concerted effort to push beyond the "line of contact" that separates
Ukrainian government-held territory in the east of the country from the Russian
backed separatist "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Western officials believe the
announcement implies that Moscow knows that its pre-war strategy has failed.
"Russia is recognising
that it can't pursue its operations on multiple axes simultaneously," one
official said.
As many as 10 new battalion
tactical groups are being generated and put into Russia's operations,
especially in the Donbas.
Western officials have been
concerned for some time that Russia will attempt to encircle and envelop
Ukraine's best fighting units, which are stationed along the line of contact.
If more Russian firepower,
particularly air power, is concentrated in the east, those concerns will rise.
"I hope that's where the
Western supply of arms will make a significant contribution to Ukrainian
forces," one official said.
In another development, Russia's
defence ministry also announced that 1,351 servicemen had been killed and 3,825
wounded in Ukraine.
The number is far lower than
the number of Russian casualties cited either by Ukraine or the US.
Western officials say a seventh
Russian general has been killed in action. Analysts
have previously suggested Ukraine may be deliberately targeting senior Russian
military officers.
Ukraine's death toll since the
war began is now well into the thousands, with 10 million people displaced
within Ukraine and beyond its borders.
So far the UN has only
confirmed 1,081 civilian deaths in Ukraine but the true number is far higher
with 300 deaths reported in the attack on a theatre in Mariupol alone.
More than 3.7 million people
have fled abroad, including 2.2 million to Poland. Russia says more than
400,000 have fled there too.
Source: BBC
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