Russia’s armed forces appear to be turning their attention away from capturing Kyiv and towards consolidating gains in the Donbas region.
In what would amount to a scaling back of its ambition, a senior US official said that the advance on Ukraine’s capital has halted, as Russia’s defence ministry said it would focus on the “liberation” of territory to the East.
Moscow claimed that Russian-backed separatists are controlling 93% of Luhansk and 54% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up Donbas.
“The main objectives of the first stage of the operation have generally been accomplished,” said Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate.
“The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal – the liberation of Donbas.”
It came as the city council in Mariupol said about 300 people died in the bombing of a theatre last week.
The US also said Russian forces were no longer in full control of Kherson, supposedly the first Ukrainian city to fall after the invasion began.
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‘We will win this fight’, says Kiev mayor
Other developments:
There are suspicions that Moscow may be switching to more limited goals after running into fierce Ukrainian resistance in the first month of the war.
But the US also cautioned that could be an attempt to leverage negotiations and cut off Ukrainian forces in the east from the rest of the country.
“They are prioritising it (Donbas) and we concur, our information would concur, with that,” an unnamed senior US defence official said.
Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
While President Putin says that what Russia calls the special military operation is going to plan the reality does seem to be anything but.
Russian commanders must know the reality on the ground.
Military analysts say that if bolstering the breakaway Donbas region really was the ultimate goal Moscow did not need to deploy forces all across the country.
But information in this war is as much of a weapon as bombs and bullets, so while that is what is being said today, we have to wait and see what happens next on the ground.
They said the US was seeing Russian forces become more aggressive in the Donbas area.
“They have certainly made it a higher priority on their list,” they added.
Earlier, however, Russia’s defence ministry said the invasion would continue until it “reaches the targets set by Vladimir Putin”.
Mr Rudskoi said 1,351 Russian soldiers had died in the conflict and 3,825 had been injured.
The governor of Donetsk said on Friday afternoon that Ukrainian forces still control the besieged southern city of Mariupol.
Speaking on national television, Pavlo Kyrylenko said about 65,000 people had fled the city in private vehicles or on foot, while attempts to facilitate mass evacuations had mostly failed.
In an update on peace talks, a Russian negotiator said the two sides were getting close on secondary issues, but not really making progress on key ones and “treading water”, the Interfax news agency reported.
Ukraine appears to be trying to stretch the talks out, the negotiator claimed, while Ukraine’s foreign minister said the process was very difficult.
Ukraine news live: Putin ‘has failed and is moving towards Plan B’
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Burning homes in a residential area in northeast Chernihiv Pic: Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies
On the ground, the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has been cut off by Russian forces, its regional governor has said.
“The city has been conditionally, operationally surrounded by the enemy,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus said on national television.
Chernihiv is being bombarded by artillery and warplanes, he added.
Ukraine wants to arrange a humanitarian corridor for Chernihiv on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, adding that establishing such escape routes was challenging.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, four people were killed when Russian shelling hit a clinic proing humanitarian aid, regional police said.
Russian progress slowed by ‘logistic issues and Ukrainian resistance’
In its latest intelligence update, the UK Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces were re-occupying towns and defensive positions “up to 35 kilometres east of Kyiv”.
It put that down to Ukrainian counter-attacks and Russian forces “falling back on overextended supply lines”.
In the south, “Russian forces are still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa”, the MOD added.
But their progress is being “slowed by logistic issues and Ukrainian resistance”.
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0:58
Mariupol’s theatre after bombardment
‘Last refuge for hundreds of innocent people’
In Mariupol, about 300 people died in the bombing of a theatre in the port city last week, its city council has said.
The number is said to have come from those inside the building at the time, outside which was a large sign saying “children” in Russian.
It became the “last refuge for hundreds of innocent people”, a council spokesman said. More than 1,300 people were sheltering inside, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner.
There is increasing eence of mass graves in Mariupol – including one that appears to hold 200 bodies – the head of the UN’s human rights team in Ukraine has said.
Some of the eence is from satellite images, Matilda Bogner told journalists via link from Ukraine.
Civilian deaths in the country have exceeded 1,035, she added, while the UN team is investigating what appear to be indiscriminate attacks by both sides.
In Boryspil, southeast of Kyiv, and close to an international airport, about 20,000 people have answered appeals to leave, Mayor Volodymyr Borysenko said.
Around 3.7m people have now fled Ukraine since the conflict began, the UN’s refugee agency has said.
Read more: Unlikely beacon of light as families flee Ukraine’s most devastated city
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President Joe Biden meeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels
‘Strategic failure for Putin’
The United States, meanwhile, is to supply more liquid natural gas to the European Union to help it reduce its reliance on Russia sources.
President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin uses energy to “coerce and manipulate his neighbours” and takes the profits from its sale to “drive his war machine”.
Cutting Europe’s reliance on Russian energy was not only the “right thing to do from a moral standpoint” but “it’s going to put us on a stronger strategic footing”, Mr Biden said.
He has met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, which hosted a summit of NATO and G7 leaders on Thursday.
The aim is to “get rid” of dependence on Russian fossil fuels, Ms von der Leyen said, adding that the war would be a “strategic failure for Putin”.
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3:41
Analysis: Why isn’t Russia winning?
Mr Biden arrived in Poland this afternoon – home to more than two million Ukrainian refugees – after warning that NATO would respond “in kind” if Russia was to use chemical weapons.
He has met US troops stationed in Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine.
