The US assesses that Russia is prioritizing eastern Ukraine's Donbass, as opposed to Kyiv, in what could be an effort to build leverage in negotiations and cut off Ukrainian forces in the east from the rest of the country.
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits positions of armed forces in Donbass regionWASHINGTON -The United States assesses that Russia is prioritizing eastern Ukraine's Donbass, as opposed to Kyiv, in what could be an effort to build leverage in negotiations and cut off Ukrainian forces in the east from the rest of the country, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.
The senior U.S. official suggested Russia's activities on the ground appeared broadly to back up Moscow's announcement. Kherson was the first big urban center to fall into the hands of Russian troops after they invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Russia's combat power in Ukraine was somewhere between 85 and less than 90% of its pre-invasion levels, the U.S. defense official said.For the first time, the official said, the United States had signs that Russia was looking to draw on its troops in Georgia to help in Ukraine.
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