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.