Russian forces are making a ‘rapid retreat’ from Ukraine capital Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv – areas from which it said military activity would be scaled back to build trust for peace talks – Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said Saturday, Podolyak, however, struck a warning note with his next remark, saying the retreat made it ‘completely clear Russia is prioritising a different tactic – falling back on the east and south’.
“With the rapid retreat of Russians from Kyiv and Chernihiv regions… it is completely clear Russia is prioritising a different tactic: falling back on the east and south,” he said.
Podolyak claimed that though Russian forces were pulling back, their aim was to ‘control a vast stretch of occupied territory and set up in a powerful way’. Russia planned to ‘dig in, set up air defence (and)… dictate terms’, he tweeted.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the same announcement early this morning in a televised address, saying, “The occupiers are withdrawing forces in the north. .. The withdrawal is slow but noticeable.”
However he cautioned residents hoping to return to expect mines and tripwires, and said aerial bombing may continue. “They are mining the whole territory. They are mining homes… even bodies of people killed,” the president said.
Zelenskyy and Podolyak have requested the West to provide ‘heavy weapons’; “… give us missiles, airplanes… give us the old Soviet planes. That’s all.”
The US said it would provide $300 million in medical supplies and unmanned aerial systems, bringing its total spending in Ukraine to over $2.3 billion.
Ukraine officials also said they had re-captured the town of Brovary, which is 20 km east of Kyiv. Town officials said ‘Russian occupants have now left’ and that Ukrainian soldiers are working to clear straggling enemy troops and equipment.
Russian negotiators said Tuesday Moscow would ‘radically’ reduce military activity in some areas, including near Kyiv, after ‘meaningful’ peace talks in Turkey’s Istanbul. They said they would ‘fundamentally … cut back military activity… to ‘increase mutual trust’.
However, over the next few days Ukraine reported continued Russian shelling around both Kyiv and Chernihiv, adding weight to concerns expressed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his American counterpart Joe Biden, and British deputy prime minister Dominic Raab that Russia’s promise may have been a smokescreen to cover repositioning of troops.
READ: Gunfire in Kyiv day after Russia says will ‘cut back’ military activity
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said talk of ‘scaling back’ may be a move to ‘deflect’ as Moscow tries to shake off a dogged rear-guard that has stalled attempts to capture Kyiv for over a month and focus on Donetsk and Luhansk.
There is precedence for Blinken’s claim; in February, Russia said troops at the Ukraine border would be withdrawn but days later they crossed the border and started the war.
Moscow has not so far commented on troop pullbacks or offered details of its decision to ‘scale back’ military activity, but reacted strongly to an airstrike that targeted a fuel depot in the Russian town of Belgorod.
Ukraine has refused to deny or confirm a hand in the strike.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the strikes did not create comfortable conditions for peace talks but the two sides met for a second time this week.
With input from AFP, Bloomberg, Reuters