The Pentagon on Thursday said that Russia may be repositioning some of its forces around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to send them to the eastern Donbas region, where Ukrainian forces have been putting up fierce resistance.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also said that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has decided to keep elements of the 82nd Airborne Division in Europe for the time being along with an aircraft carrier strike group in the Mediterranean.

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Russia has moved a “small number” of its troops from around Kyiv after failing to capture the city, which continues to be targeted by Russian airstrikes.

“It’s not exactly clear where they’re going to go, for how long, and for what purpose,” he said, “but we don’t see any indication that they’re going to be sent home.”

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The Pentagon spokesman also said that the “best assessment” is that the troops are “going to be repositioned, probably into Belarus, to be refitted and resupplied and used elsewhere in Ukraine.”

Earlier, Senior military leader Sergei Rudskoi said that the first phase of the military campaign in Ukraine was over and troops would now focus on the “main goal — the liberation of Donbas,” which is already partly held by Russian proxies.

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Kirby noted that the Donbas region has been fought over for eight years and the Ukrainian armed forces have been “very active” in the area.