Russia says it is regrouping forces for full Donbass takeover

KYIV • Russia said yesterday it is regrouping its forces in Ukraine in a push to complete the takeover of the eastern Donbass region, a sign that Moscow is not slowing all military activity despite a pledge to cut operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv.

"The goal of the redeployment of the Russian armed forces is to activate operations in the priority directions, first of all, the completion of the full liberation of Donbass," Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

He said that forces near Kyiv and Chernihiv had fulfilled their main goals of tying down Ukrainian forces.

Russia on Tuesday announced it was cutting operations in those areas in what it called an effort to build confidence amid talks on a possible ceasefire.

Ukraine and its Western allies said the move appeared to be merely an attempt to buy time since Russia had failed to gain ground against Ukraine's military.

Russian attacks in both locations continued yesterday, according to Reuters reporters near Kyiv and the mayor of Chernihiv.

Mr Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia was transferring forces from northern Ukraine to eastern areas to try to encircle Ukrainian troops there.

He said Russia would keep some troops near Kyiv to try to prevent Ukrainian forces reinforcing the eastern front.

"Although the Russians are withdrawing some troops from (around) Kyiv, they will still leave certain forces here (near Kyiv) to keep our troops here," Mr Arestovych said.

Some Russian units suffering heavy losses in Ukraine have also been forced to return home and to neighbouring Belarus, British military intelligence said.

Russian forces were also shelling nearly all cities along the front line separating Ukrainian government-controlled territory from areas held by Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region, the regional governor said, and heavy fighting was reported in the southern port city of Mariupol.

The Chernihiv region's governor, Mr Viacheslav Chaus, said he saw no let-up in Russian attacks. "Do we believe in it (the promise to reduce military activities)? Of course not," Mr Chaus said.

The governor of the Khmelnitskyi region in western Ukraine said Russian forces had hit industrial facilities in the region in three strikes overnight.

Mr Arestovych said street fighting in Mariupol was heavy and half the city had been taken by Russian forces. Air strikes hit a Red Cross facility in Mariupol yesterday and amid the carnage, the city denounced the forced evacuation to Russia of a maternity hospital from the besieged city.

"More than 70 people, women and medical personnel from maternity hospital No. 2 from the left bank district were taken by force by the occupiers," the mayor's office said on its Telegram channel.

Mr Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolayiv region, said fighting also continued around occupied Kherson on the Black Sea and in the region as a whole. At least 12 people were killed and 33 wounded on Tuesday when a Russian missile hit a regional government building in Mykolaiv.

In another development, Ukraine accused Russia of planting mines in the Black Sea and said some of them had to be defused off Turkey and Romania. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Russia was using the naval mines as "uncontrolled drifting ammunition".

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Ukrainian "nationalists" in Mariupol would have to "lay down their arms" before Russian forces allow any emergency humanitarian assistance.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE