Live updates: UK says Russia's shift proves it has problems

Britain’s Ministry of Defense says Russia’s stated focus on the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine “is likely a tacit admission that it is struggling to sustain more than one significant axis of advance.”

LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Defense says Russia's stated focus on the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine “is likely a tacit admission that it is struggling to sustain more than one significant axis of advance.”

In a daily war assessment, the ministry said Wednesday that Russian units suffering heavy losses have been forced to return to Belarus and Russia to reorganize and supply. It says such activity is placing further pressure on Russia’s already strained logistics and demonstrates the difficulties Russia is having reorganizing its units in forward areas within Ukraine.

It noted, however, that the shift is unlikely to mean relief for civilians in cities that have been subjected to relentless Russian bombardments. It expects Moscow will continue to compensate for reduced ground maneuvers through mass artillery and missile strikes.

___

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Russian pledge to scale back in Ukraine draws skepticism

— UN food chief: Ukraine war’s food crisis is worst since WWII

— After Russian forces pull back, a shattered town breathes

— Sanctioned oligarch Abramovich seen at Russia-Ukraine talks

— Pentagon may need more budget funding to help Ukraine

— Ukraine’s other fight: Growing food for itself and the world

— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage

___

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed skepticism Tuesday night about Russia’s announcement that it would significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city.

“Yes, we can call those signals that we hear at the negotiations positive. But those signals don’t silence the explosions of Russian shells,” Zelenskyy said. “Of course we see the risks. Of course we don’t see any basis for trusting the words voiced by those or other representatives of the state that is continuing to fight for our destruction.”

Negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country.

“Ukrainians are not naïve people,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukrainians have already learned during the 34 days of the invasion and during the past eight years of war in the Donbas that you can trust only concrete results.”

Ukraine’s delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, has laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of other nations.

___

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the “demilitarization of Russia is well underway.”

Since the beginning of the invasion into Ukraine, Kyslytsya said the Russian occupiers have lost more than 17,000 military personnel, over 1,700 armored vehicles and almost 600 tanks.

He also said Russia also has lost 300 artillery systems, 127 planes and 129 helicopters, almost 100 rocket launchers systems, 54 air defense systems and seven ships.

Kyslytsya said that is “an unprecedented blow to Moscow, where the numbers of Soviet losses in Afghanistan pale in comparison.”

Earlier Tuesday, Russia announced it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks.

Negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country.

__

Ukrainian military officials said they distrust Russia’s announced withdrawal from around Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Earlier Tuesday, Russia announced it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks.

“There are indications that the Russian forces are regrouping to focus their efforts on eastern Ukraine,” the Ukrainian general staff said in a statement late Tuesday. “At the same time, the so-called ‘withdrawal of troops’ is most likely a rotation of individual units and is aimed at misleading the Ukrainian military leadership” by creating the misconception that the Russians have decided not to try to encircle Kyiv.

Ukraine’s delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of other nations.

Negotiations were expected to resume Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country.

__

The U.N. food chief is warning that the war in Ukraine has created “a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe” and will have a global impact “beyond anything we’ve seen since World War II” because farmers from the country which was the breadbasket of the world are on the front lines fighting Russia and already high food prices are skyrocketing.

David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that his agency, which was feeding 125 million people before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, was already beginning to cut rations because of rising food, fuel and shipping costs for millions of families around the world. In war-torn Yemen, he said, 8 million people just had their food allotment cut to 50% “and now we’re looking at going to zero rations.”

The war in Ukraine is decimating the country, “turning the breadbasket of the world to breadlines” for millions of its people, Beasley said. But it is also devastating countries around the world like Egypt which is 85% dependent on Ukraine grain and Lebanon which was 81% dependent in 2020.

Ukraine and Russia produce 30% of the global wheat supply, 20% of the global maize supply and 75-80% of the sunflower seed oil.

__

Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations about the naval mines that have been set adrift in the Black Sea, threatening shipping.

The Russian military has alleged that the Ukrainian military has used old naval mines to protect the coast against a Russian landing and some of them have been ripped off their anchors by a storm and left adrift.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev reaffirmed Tuesday that “the threat of Ukrainian mines drifting along the coastline of Black Sea states remains.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded in a statement Tuesday, accusing Russia of using Ukrainian mines it seized after the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and setting them adrift to “discredit Ukraine before international partners.”

The Turkish Defense Ministry said Saturday that a naval mine was spotted near the Bosporus and neutralized. It said the mine was of an old type but didn’t say to whom it belonged.

The conflicting claims by Russia and Ukraine couldn’t be independently verified.

__

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he wasn’t yet convinced that Russia’s announcement that it would scale back military operations near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv will lead to a fundamental shift in the war.

During an appearance with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong following bilateral talks at the White House, Biden said he was waiting to see what Russia offers in ongoing talks with Ukraine and how Moscow readjusts its troop presence.

U.S. and Western officials have expressed skepticism about Russia’s announcement earlier on Tuesday that it would dial back operations in an effort to increase trust in ongoing talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey.

“We’ll see,” Biden said. “I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are.”

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield later expressed an even greater skepticism, saying the administration views any movement of Russian forces as a “redeployment and not a withdrawal” and “no one should be fooled by Russia’s announcement.”