“The Russians give up on conquering kyiv” : for the Daily Telegraph, “Vladimir Putin’s plan to seize kyiv has failed”. Moscow announced the withdrawal of its troops from the capital, officially to facilitate peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which showed encouraging signs on Tuesday.
Vladimir Medinsky, representative of the Kremlin at the negotiating table, claimed that Moscow did not want “exposing kyiv to a military risk”while the capital is home to “people whose decisions could bring peace, like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky”explains the conservative daily.
“How to interpret these latest developments? ”asks the Washington Post in an opinion column. “This is not a sudden outpouring of benevolence from Kremlin war criminals”car “Vladimir Putin’s diabolical aggression continues in the rest of Ukraine”.
For the American daily, “Putin is just acknowledging the reality: his forces are losing the war around kyiv”. An analysis shared by The Guardian, which observes that Russians “failed to capture the Ukrainian capital”and to obtain its “quick surrender”.
Kiev “impregnable”
“Moscow presents its decision as a gesture of goodwill, but it comes as the Russian advance appears to have stalled on several fronts and Kremlin forces are facing stiff Ukrainian resistance, heavy casualties and setbacks. logistics and tactics”observes the British daily.
Asked by Le Soir, political science researcher Julien Pomarède also believes that kyiv had become “impregnable” as is. “Vladimir Putin was stuck with his hard-line attitude. He is a leader who can never appear in a position of weakness, even minimally. Here he makes it not appear as a withdrawal”he analyzes.
The Belgian daily also points out that the area affected by the withdrawal “does not concentrate the bulk of the strikes for the moment on Ukrainian territory: the martyred city of Mariupol is still besieged, the humanitarian situation is absolutely disastrous and Kharkiv is under daily shelling. It is precisely within these territories that a ‘radical’ reduction would have been welcome”.
deep skepticism
The Kremlin’s decision to back down in kyiv and its region hardly convinces Westerners – especially Americans. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that “the threat against Kyiv [n’était] not lifted” and that the capital was doing “still subject to airstrikes. We are not certain that the threat to the capital has been drastically reduced”he said, quoted by The Hill.
“Recent Kremlin statements should not deceive anyone”he added. “We think this is a repositioning, not a real withdrawal”and it is to be expected “to a major offensive in other regions of Ukraine”.
The US president himself was skeptical, reports CNN. Asked at the White House about the Russian withdrawal, Joe Biden simply slipped: “We will see if they apply what they say”.
For the American channel, Biden’s posture “reflects Americans’ deep skepticism of Vladimir Putin’s motives”. The United States has admittedly observed “withdrawal movements of Russian troops in kyiv” but doubt the same in the rest of Ukraine in the short term.