to capture the capital kyiv. the russian advance on that city has stalled badly, in fact ukrainian troops are successfully counter attacking them. russian troop morale is said to be at rock bottom with supply lines badly overstretched. so maybe that s why a top russian general sergei rudskoi made the surpise announcement in moscow that the first phase of russia s operations here is over and that its forces will now concentrate on the donbas region in the east. mark lobel reports. after days of silence, russia s military appears in public to proclaim the first stage of their operation complete. translation: the main tasks i of the first stage of the operation have been completed. the combat potential of ukraine s armed forces has been significantly reduced, which allows us to focus our main efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of donbas.
well, the big question everyone here is asking today is whether russia has changed its war aims in this country and scaled back its ambitions so that its forces focus on the eastern front and for the first time being at least put less emphasis on trying to capture the capital kyiv. the russian advance on that city has stalled badly in fact ukrainian troops are successfully counterattacking them. russian troop morale is said to be at rock bottom with supply lines badly overstretched. so maybe that s why a top russian general sergei rudskoi made the surpise announcement in moscow that the first phase of russia s operations here is over and that its forces will now concentrate on the donbas region in the east. ukraine s president, volodymyr zelenskiy, has urged russia to engage in serious peace talks, and claimed that more than 16,000 russian troops have now died in a month of fighting, including several senior officers. mark lobel reports.
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