Russia appears to scale back war ambition to 'liberating' Donbas

In a scaled-back formulation ofits war goals, Russia said on Friday that the first phase of itsmilitary operation was mostly complete and it would focus oncompletely "liberating" Ukraine's breakaway eastern Donbasregion.

The announcement appeared to indicate that Moscow may beswitching to more limited objectives after running into fierceUkrainian resistance in a month of war. Russian troops have failed to capture any major city and have been halted at the gates of the capital, Kyiv.

The Defence Ministry said Russian-backed separatists nowcontrolled 93 per centof Ukraine's Luhansk region and 54 per centof theDonetsk region. They jointly make up the Donbas.

"The main objectives of the first stage of the operationhave generally been accomplished," Sergei Rudskoi, head of theRussian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate, said in aspeech.

"The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hasbeen considerably reduced, which ... makes it possible to focusour core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation ofDonbas."

Donbas, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine without evidence ofwaging "genocide" against ethnic Russians, has long occupied aprominent place in Moscow's litany of grievances againstUkraine.

But if capturing the whole of Donbas had been the objectivefrom the start, Moscow could have mounted a much more limitedoffensive and spared itself the effort and losses involved ininvading Ukraine from the north, east and south.

"Obviously they have completely failed in everything they'veset out to do and so now they are redefining what the purpose isso they can declare victory," said Ben Hodges, a formercommander of U.S. army forces in Europe who now works for theCentre for European Policy Analysis.

"Clearly they do not have the ability to continue sustainedlarge-scale offensive operations.... Their logistics problems
have been apparent to everybody, they've got serious manpowerissues and the resistance has been way beyond anything theycould have possibly imagined."

A senior diplomatic source in Moscow described it as aface-saving move and possible prelude to a climb-down by Russia.Its forces have become bogged down and failed to take any majorcity since invading Ukraine onFeb. 24.

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"Their war aims are/were much wider than Donbas, leavingtheir force divided with poorly co-ordinated attacks on multiplefronts by unprepared troops," the source said.

"I'd anticipated the possibility of a refocusing of effortback on Donbas, but while Putin rhetoric remains maximalist, weneed to see more evidence on the ground."

Putin says Russian forces are on aspecial operation to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine.

The West and Kyiv call that a false pretext to invade ademocracy, saying his true goal was to topple the government.

Russia has also said it will insist that Ukraine accept theloss of Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, and recognize asindependent the Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists havebeen fighting the Ukrainian army for the past eight years.

Ukraine says it is willing to negotiate an end to the warbut will not surrender or bow to ultimatums.

Rudskoi said Russia's military had considered confining itsoperation just to Donbas but opted for extending across Ukraineto damage its military infrastructure and tie down forces so asto prevent them reinforcing the east.

Russia did not rule out storming cities, he said, but as itsmilitary completed tasks, "our forces and resources will beconcentrated on the main thing the complete liberation ofDonbas."

Rudskoi said 1,351 Russian soldiers had died in theoperation and 3,825 had been injured. Ukraine's military has saidsome 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in combat.