Russia's troop withdrawal from North Ukraine just a rotation aimed to 'mislead', says Kyiv

Russia’s withdrawal from rth Ukraine is just a rotation of troops with an aim to “mislead” Ukrainian military’s leadership, said General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday. Following Moscow’s anuncement of pulling back troops from Kyiv and Chernihiv, Ukrainian armed forces released an intelligence report as of 10 PM (local time) and confirmed that Russia continued to withdraw from said territories in Ukraine’s rth. statement said that Russia was just ‘rotating’ individual troops. 

Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces said, “According to some indications, Russian enemy is regrouping units to focus its main efforts on east.”

“At same time, so-called ‘withdrawal of troops’ is probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead military leadership of Armed Forces of Ukraine and create a misconception about occupiers’ refusal to plan to encircle city of Kyiv,” it added. 

Zelenskyy says challenges for Ukraine haven't 'diminished'

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday night stressed that “challenges haven’t diminished” for Kyiv after Russia claimed to scale back its military activity near Kyiv, Chernihiv. On day 34 of Russia-Ukraine war, as both sides met in person for peace talks in Turkey on Tuesday, Russian Defence Ministry had also anunced that it would “drastically reduce military activity” in two key Ukrainian cities. Following Moscow’s anuncement, Ukraine’s President stated that scaling back military activity in parts of his country “don’t drown out explosions of Russian bombs”.

In latest national address, Zelenskyy said, “I’m sure you saw news that Russian military allegedly decided to scale down ir attacks in Kyiv and Chernihiv areas” while adding that Ukraine is t willing to give up its vigilance. He averred that situation in country “hasn’t become easier”.

“ scale of challenges hasn’t diminished. Russian army still has a sizable potential to carry on ir attacks against our country. y have plenty of equipment and people who are disenfranchised who y could send into fire of war,” Zelenskyy added.

Im: AP