Russia focuses on liberating east Ukraine, says first phase over

Russia has said the initial aims of its invasion are largely complete, despite clear indications it has stalled.

The defence ministry in Moscow has now identified the war's main goal as "liberating" eastern Ukraine.

It also announced that 1,351 servicemen had been killed and 3,825 wounded in Ukraine, in only its second briefing since Russia invaded on 24 February.

The number is far lower than the number of Russian casualties cited either by Ukraine or the US.
A sixth Russian general is among those killed, according to Ukrainian officials, who estimated the number of Russian deaths at more than 16,100.

The true number cannot be verified but on Monday, pro-Kremlin website Komsomolskaya Pravda published a figure of 9,861 military deaths, before it removed the report and said the site had been hacked.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said that among the dead was a two-star general, Lt Gen Yakov Ryezantsev, the commander of the 49th Russian Southern District Army, in a Ukrainian attack near Kherson in the south.

The commander is thought to be the sixth Russian general to have been killed in action.

Russian troops first tried to encircle the capital Kyiv. But after bombarding and then seizing several towns to the north-west they were forced back by Ukraine's military, which is now trying to surround thousands of Russian soldiers.

Russia's army has had greater success on the south coast, seizing towns and cities such as Kherson, and making some gains in the east.

Moscow now claims 93% of the eastern region of Luhansk is under the control of Russian-backed separatists, with 54% of the other eastern region of Donetsk in their hands. More than a third of the entire area was under separatist control before the war began.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS