Russian Federation (RF) forces were still fighting to hold positions in the north of Kyiv on Wednesday, despite a recent declaration by a senior Kremlin official that Moscow was pulling its forces out of the area.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Tuesday, RF deputy defense minister Alexander Fomin, said the Kremlin will “radically, at times, reduce military activity” in the Kyiv and Chernihiv sectors.
On-the-ground sources in two of Kyiv’s northern districts on Wednesday morning told KP that the sounds of fighting had been audible for hours, for the most part small arms and grenade fire.
During the night Tuesday-Wednesday, March 29-30, RF artillery hit 20,000 square meters of warehousing outside Brovary, setting the facility afire, one source said. Social media images confirmed the account.
A Tuesday evening situation map published by the Kyiv regional command showed mopping up (i.e., UAF clearance of small IF infantry groups) still in progress in the north Kyiv bedroom communities Irpen’, Makariv, and Brovary, and continued RF control of the adjacent villages Bucha, Visheneve and Gostomel’.
Vadym Denysenko, Interior Minstry head for Kyiv region, said that overnight RF forces used artillery rockets against a Kyiv suburb. He did not give details. The strike taking place on Tuesday evening was audible across much of the city.
A March 30, 06:00, sitrep released by Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said that the “removal of troops” from the Kyiv referenced by Fomin was almost certainly a lie to cover a rotation of troops.
A Tuesday evening Pentagon statement said that US intelligence has detected minor movements of RF troops out of the Kyiv sector, but no major withdrawals.
