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

Russia’s withdrawal from the north Ukraine is just a rotation of troops with an aim to “mislead” the Ukrainian military’s leadership, said General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Tuesday. Following Moscow’s announcement 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 the said territories in Ukraine’s north. The statement said that Russia was just ‘rotating’ individual troops. 

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

“At the same time, the so-called ‘withdrawal of troops’ is probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead the military leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and create a misconception about the occupiers’ refusal to plan to encircle the 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 the Russia-Ukraine war, as both sides met in person for peace talks in Turkey on Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry had also announced that it would “drastically reduce military activity” in two key Ukrainian cities. Following Moscow’s announcement, Ukraine’s President stated that scaling back military activity in parts of his country “don’t drown out the explosions of Russian bombs”.

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

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

Image: AP