The refocusing of the Russian war effort on Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces will face a hardened Ukrainian army, portends a “protracted” conflict, a senior Pentagon official warned Thursday. .
Russian forces have started their withdrawal from Chernobyl (north) and have “abandoned” the military airport of Gostomel, northwest of kyiv, but “we continue to think that it is a repositioning”, declared to the press this official having requested anonymity.
“We have absolutely no indication that these soldiers are returning home, or that they are permanently removed from the fighting,” he added.
“What we continue to believe is that these forces will be re-equipped and sent back to Ukraine … to continue the fight in accordance with what we believe to be their objective, which is to say generally the ‘East’, including the separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, in the Donbass, he added.