Page 29 - The Donbas News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Adviser to the ukrainian president zelenskyy. mr. novikov, thank you for being here. we appreciate your time. we realize it's the middle of the night. i do want to ask you about this speculation. these reports that russia is saying, basically all we were looking for was donbas. and everything else was a distraction. what do you make of that? >> well, i think the military operation has not gone to plan. -- with the wording, here i wouldn't trust anything the russia says. -- we run into major trouble around kyiv, they've run into -- to the northwest of kyiv, it's not gone to plan for them around...

Chernihiv is thought to be strategically important for russians because it stands on the route towards kyiv, from the north. but now that there is some indication that the russians are narrowing their military objective. the perspective is changing. russian military officials today held a briefing in front of a very big map. saying that the operation in ukraine is entering a new phase, focused on the complete liberation of the donbas. that, you will recall, is the eastern region that russia and ukraine have been fighting over for years. the russian officials claim today that russia's assault o...

Amount or type of missile strikes that russia has launched on kyiv that you feel would be tied to this repositioning or focus towards the donbas? >> we have seen the ukrainians push back to the west of kyiv where the ukrainians have taken ground. i don't have a list of the towns but we have seen them retake some territories to the west of kyiv. be -- we talked about this a week ago, to the east of kyiv. the russians were on the outskirts of brovary. the ukrainians pushed them back 50 kilometers away from the city. we have seen them do that around kyiv, again to the west and to the east. i don'...

A victory somewhat. what i fear most moving forward is a bloody conflict in the donbas. what we're seeing right now in addition to the russian troops or the mercenaries, they are the worst of the worst and they're moving thousands of them in to the donbas. that's where you'll see the action tank place and the russians retreating out of kyiv. >> martha: he said that was the original objective, to liberate that area. suddenly they were attacking on all sides. it's interesting to see what the reaction to putin over time. they're not bringing home the dead soldiers because of the reaction they'll ...

Five weeks into this war, ukraine is bracing itself for a new offensive. its forces are now preparing to resist a fresh assault on the eastern donbas region. days after russia said it would move troops away from the capital, kyiv, the city still reverberates with the sound of shelling. translation: we do not believe anyone. - we do not trust any beautiful verbal constructions. there is a real situation on the battlefield and now this is the most important thing. we will not give up anything, and we will fight for every metre of our land and for every person. here in lviv, and across ukraine, t...