Russia’s Kyiv Pullback is ‘Not a Real Withdrawal,’ Pentagon Warns

3.29.22
The Pentagon warned Tuesday that Russia’s announcement that it was “drastically reducing hostilities” in Kyiv and Chernihiv is not a real withdrawal and said Russian leader Vladimir Putin still hopes to take all of Ukraine. “Nobody should be fooling ourselves by the Kremlin’s now recent claim that it will suddenly just reduce military attacks near Kyiv, or any reports that it’s going to withdraw all its forces,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday. Kirby said the Pentagon has seen Russia pull back “small numbers” of forces, “but we believe this is a repositioning, not a real withdrawal.” Kirby said Tuesday’s announcement amounted to spin and “moving the goalposts” after Russia has faced a month of resistance, high casualties, and logistics and intelligence failures in Ukraine. He cited a similar statement by Sergei Rudskoi, Russian general staff head of military operations, who claimed last week that the country’s forces had accomplished their first objective and would concentrate on their only goal, “complete liberation of Donbass.”

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I think Putin now realizes that he cannot capture Kyiv with the forces he has available for the task. I agree with the Pentagon that this is not a cease-fire or even de-escalation, it is simply the Russian military re-arranging it forces in Ukraine. The Kremlin will concentrate on Donbas and Mariupol. At a very minimum, Putin cannot walk away with anything less than a land bridge from Russia to Crimea. To make this land-bridge a reality, he needs to capture Mariupol and then Berdyansk. Putin may also dearly wish to also cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea, thus making Ukraine a land-locked nation. To accomplish this, his forces would need to re-capture Kherson, and capture Mykolaiv, and finally Odesa. I don't believe Russian forces can hold all of these cities indefinitely. The US and NATO must also supply Ukraine with anti-ship missiles. Britain agreed to provide anti-ship missiles to Ukraine back in February. The US has the RIM 67-A/B/C/D available in its arsenal.

It was just another lie.

joluoto said:

It was just another lie.

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Never ever believe the Kremlin.