Moscow has vowed to “fundamentally cut” its operations around the Ukrainian capital to “boost mutual trust” in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, but Western officials have suggested it is more about the time market. Can it trust Russia’s commitment? “The most striking thing about this is the way in which, even after all we have seen about how unreliable and unreliable the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defense are, people still take them at face value,” he said. Keir Giles, Russia think tank expert Chatham House. , he said. Mikhail Kasyanov, who was Russia’s prime minister under President Vladimir Putin from 2000 to 2004, spoke to Sky News about the situation in Ukraine and what the peace talks could mean. Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:18 Russia will “reduce” the attacks in Kyiv “I do not think we have any indication that Mr Putin is ready for any concessions,” he said. “He also wants to have a negotiated deal with Ukraine just to show the world that he wants peace, but … I think it’s just a kind of camouflage.” Is the Russian “recognition of reality” movement on the ground? Michael Clark, a defense analyst, said Moscow’s failure to overtake Ukraine was in play. “It is a rationalization of the military situation in which they find themselves,” he said. “They realize, I am sure, that they must concentrate their efforts. They are very widely distributed. “They have to be concentrated somewhere and that is why our attention is now focused on the southeast of the country.” Mr Giles described the move as a “recognition of reality” by Russia, acknowledging that it had “failed” and limiting its military objectives to focusing on the east of the country. However, he also questioned whether Ukraine could maintain its military operations, citing Russia’s “good record” of starting wars “catastrophically” but then winning by absolute manpower. Image: A shell crater as deep as a Ukrainian soldier marks a village on the front line in the East Kiev region Alexander Stubb, Finland’s former prime minister who helped mediate a ceasefire with Russia and Georgia in 2008, said the announcement by Russia could be just a signal that the Kremlin is focusing its troops on the east. of the country. Is the Kremlin just buying time? Speaking to Reuters news agency, a Western official said the announcement “seems to be more of a tactic” to save time for troops to regroup. In a press conference at the White House, US President Joe Biden simply put it: “We’ll see if they follow.” This assessment was reiterated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who said he “saw no signs of seriousness” from Russia in ending the war. “I do not know if he is just trying to regroup, given the heavy losses he has suffered,” he said. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Moscow-backed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine called the Russian invasion “wrong.” “All of this could have been resolved earlier, mainly through diplomatic means and perhaps an insignificant use of force,” Alexei Alexandrov told Reuters. “But that did not happen, and that is wrong on all sides.” What is happening around Kyiv? One of the most talked about developments in the first weeks of the war was a huge escort of Russian armored personnel carriers heading to Kyiv, in the hope that Kremlin troops would seek to encircle the capital. Russian operations around the city have since stopped, according to Giles. “What Russia is proposing now has nothing to do with increasing confidence,” he said. Image: Kyiv has become a city of checkpoints and defense. Photo: AP “These companies [around Kyiv] have stopped and in some cases been overthrown by the Ukrainian armed forces. “ Mr Stump said: “To be honest, they seem to have completely failed in their attempt to occupy Kyiv. “We are now the fifth week – soon the sixth week – of this war, and they have not been able to take it.” Mr Clarke agreed that Russia “obviously can not now encircle Kyiv” in the way many expected it to at the beginning of the war.
