While small numbers of Russian forces have moved away from the capital of Kyiv, the Pentagon considers it to be “a repositioning, not a real withdrawal.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that the reporting about Russia’s movements away from the capital has been exaggerated and that it “doesn’t mean that the threat to Kyiv is over.”
Russia “has failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv,” Kirby said, adding that the military “can still inflict massive brutality on the country, including on Kyiv.”
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His remarks come a day after a U.S. senior defense official told reporters that Russian troops are “making really no efforts on the ground to advance on the city,” and days earlier, the same official said the Russians were now “prioritizing the Donbas” region.
Russia has sought, since the beginning of the invasion, to capture enough land between Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the eastern part of Ukraine, which has a pro-Russian separatist faction, so that it can more easily move supplies and troops from one area to the other. As such, they have put a significant emphasis on overtaking Mariupol, a key port city along the Sea of Azov, the citizens of which have faced some of the harshest tactics of the war, including the bombings of a maternity hospital, a theater, and a school that were acting as shelters.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine acknowledged last week that Russia “succeeded in creating a land corridor between the” two regions.
The Pentagon’s latest assessment is in line with the White House, where communications director Kate Bedingfield described the moves around Kyiv as a “redeployment” and not an outright “withdrawal.”
“Everyone should expect that we’re going to continue to see attacks across Ukraine,” Bedingfield said. “Obviously, a key message that the president delivered on his trip to Europe last week was that we are in for a long slog, that our allies and partners need to remain, that our resolve needs to remain strong, and that we need to continue to execute on the strategy of inflicting significant costs on the Russian economy, and again, strengthening Ukraine on the battlefields and at the negotiating table.”
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Over the last week or so, the United States has warned about the possibility of a chemical attack in Ukraine, the administration accused Russian forces of committing war crimes, and President Joe Biden called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s removal from office — only for it to be walked back shortly after.
