The Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and the intensified attacks in other parts of the country further undermined hopes for progress towards an end to the brutal war.  The talks between Ukraine and Russia were to be repeated on Friday via video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arahamia.
A delegation of Ukrainian lawmakers visited Washington on Wednesday to push for more US aid, saying their nation needed more military equipment, more financial aid and tougher sanctions against Russia.
“We must expel Russian soldiers from our land and for that we need all, all possible weapons,” Ukrainian MP Anastasia Radina told a news conference at the Ukrainian embassy.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred the case directly to US President Joe Biden.
“If we really fight for freedom and the defense of democracy together, then we have the right to ask for help at this difficult turning point.  Tanks, aircraft, artillery systems.  “Freedom must not be armed worse than tyranny,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation, which he delivered in the dark outside the dim presidential offices in Kyiv.  He thanked the United States for an additional $ 500 million in aid announced Wednesday.
There seemed to be little faith that Russia and Ukraine would resolve the conflict soon, especially after the Russian military offensive and its most recent attacks.
Russia said Tuesday it would scaling up operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “boost mutual trust and create the conditions for further negotiations.” Zelensky and the West were skeptical. hit homes, shops, libraries and other political venues in or near these areas.
Russian troops have also stepped up their attacks in the Donbas area to the east and around the town of Izyum, which is on a key route to Donbas, following the redeployment of units from other areas, the Ukrainian side said.
Olexander Lomako, secretary of the Chernihiv city council, said the Russian announcement turned out to be “a complete lie”.
“At night they did not decrease, but conversely they increased the intensity of military action,” Lomako said.
A senior British intelligence official said on Thursday that frustrated Russian soldiers in Ukraine were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment and accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
Speaking in the Australian capital, Canberra, Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ cyber-espionage service, said President Vladimir Putin had apparently “massively misjudged” the invasion, he said.  Although Putin’s advisers seemed very afraid to tell the truth, “the extent of these miscalculations must be clear to the regime,” he said.
U.S. intelligence officials have suggested that Putin was misinformed by his advisers about the poor performance of his military in Ukraine because they were too afraid to tell him the truth.
Five weeks after the invasion that left thousands dead on both sides, the number of Ukrainians who fled the country exceeded 4 million, half of whom are children, according to the United Nations.
“I do not know if we can still believe the Russians,” said Nikolai Nazarov, a Ukrainian refugee as he pushed his father in a wheelchair across a border with Poland.  “I think there will be more escalation in eastern Ukraine.  That is why we cannot return to Kharkov. “
Zelensky said the ongoing negotiations with Russia were just “words without specific details”, adding that Ukraine was preparing for new concentrated blows in Donbas.
Zelensky also said he had recalled Ukraine’s ambassadors to Georgia and Morocco, implying that they had not done enough to persuade those countries to support Ukraine and punish Russia for the invasion.
“With all due respect, if there are no weapons, no sanctions, no restrictions on Russian companies, then please look for another job,” he said.
During talks in Istanbul on Tuesday, the faint outlines of a possible peace deal appeared to emerge when the Ukrainian delegation offered a framework under which the country would declare neutrality – abandoning its bid to join NATO, as it does here. Moscow for a long time – in exchange for security guarantees from a group of other nations.
Top Russian officials responded positively, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying on Wednesday that Ukraine’s willingness to accept neutrality and seek security outside NATO represented “significant progress,” according to Russian news agencies.
But these statements were followed by attacks.
Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the military administration in the Kiev region, said the Russian shells targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Bucha, Brovary and Vyshhorod areas around the capital.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the army also targeted fuel depots in two cities in central Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles.  Russian forces hit a Ukrainian special forces headquarters in the southern Mykolaiv region, he said, and two ammunition depots in the Donetsk region of Donbass.
In southern Ukraine, a Russian rocket destroyed a fuel depot in Dnipro, the country’s fourth largest city, regional officials said.
The United States has said that Russia had begun relocating less than 20 percent of its troops stationed around Kyiv.  Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said troops from there and some other areas had begun moving mainly north and some had gone to neighboring Belarus.  Kirby said it appeared Russia was planning to supply them and send them back to Ukraine, but it was unclear where.
The Ukrainian military says some Russian airborne units are believed to have withdrawn to Belarus.
In northern Ukraine, Russian forces did not take any action on Wednesday, focusing on reconnaissance and reconnaissance, the general staff said in a statement.  However, Russia is expected to step up attacks soon to protect its own troops as they relocate, he said.
The Russians are also expected to try to blockade Chernihiv.
Top Russian military officials say their main goal now is to “liberate” Donbas, the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial heartland where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Some analysts have suggested that focusing on Donbass and committing to de-escalation may simply be an attempt to give a positive twist to reality: Moscow’s ground forces have been thwarted – and have suffered heavy losses – in their bid to occupy the capital and others. cities.
In other developments:
– The UN is investigating allegations that some residents of the besieged and devastated southern city of Mariupol were forcibly relocated to areas controlled by Russian forces or to Russia itself.
Germany said Russia had assured Russia that European companies would not have to pay for Russian gas in rubles, a prospect that raised fears that Russia could cut off supplies.  Poland also said it would end Russian oil imports by the end of the year.
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Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine.  Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.