In a potential sign that Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin is facing the reality of his failure to conquer Ukraine after nearly 5 weeks of bloody loses and heroic Ukrainian resistance, Russia's deputy defense minister Alexander Fromin confirmed today that Russia would reduce "military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv." If this proves to be the case, Russian forces are expected to be shifted to eastern and southeastern Ukraine to the Donbas region and the land bridge between that and Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014. Putin has recognized the "independence" of the separatist, largely Russian-speaking Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas as an illegal foothold in Ukraine.
Russia's withdrawal from the area around Kyiv and Chernihiv are potential concessions to facilitate negotiations with Ukraine for a cease- fire which are underway in Istanbul, Turkey. It would signal that Russia's expectations of quickly turning Ukraine into a vassal state, like Belarus, have been dashed for now.
BONUS: Meanwhile --
cool cool https://t.co/mEBftmfLst
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 29, 2022
