U.S., Ukraine skeptical of Moscow's claims of scaling back

Some Russian forces that have suffered heavy losses in Ukraine have been forced to return to their own country or Belarus, but setbacks on the ground mean more mass artillery and missile strikes, the United Kingdom's defense ministry said Wednesday.

The U.K. in an intelligence update said that Russia's claimed focus on eastern Ukraine is an acknowledgment that its forces are struggling.

"Russia will likely continue to compensate for its reduced ground maneuver capability through mass artillery and missile strikes," the U.K. defense ministry said.

The United Nations human rights office has said that most of the civilian casualties it has recorded in Ukraine have been from explosive weapons that affect large areas, like heavy artillery, rockets, missiles and airstrikes.

The U.N. has recorded 1,179 civilians killed, including 104 children, since Russia attacked on Feb. 24. It says the real number of civilian casualties is higher than what has been able to be reported and corroborated so far.

Video from the city of Irpin on Tuesday showed the devastation in the western Kyiv suburb a day after Ukraine's president and others said the city was back under their control.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukrainian forces had freed Irpin from Russian control, more than a month after Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine in an assault that has been widely condemned as an unprovoked and unjustified attack.

Ukrainian and U.S. officials were dubious Tuesday of Russia's claims that it would "drastically" reduce military operations around Kyiv.

Defense Department press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday it is clear that Russia considered Kyiv an objective. "We ought not be fooling, and nobody should be fooling ourselves, by the Kremlin's now-recent claim that it will now just suddenly reduce military attacks near Kyiv," Kirby said.

Kirby said only small numbers of units have been seen moving away from the Kyiv over the last day. "But we believe this is a repositioning, not a real withdrawal — and that we all should be prepared to watch for a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine," he said. "It does not mean that the threat to Kyiv is over."

Satellite images published Tuesday by a U.S. defense contractor appeared to show widespread destruction in residential areas of Mariupol, Ukraine, and the grim reality faced by thousands of hungry civilians who remained there.

The images, from Colorado-based Maxar Technologies, captured what appeared to be a once-leafy neighborhood that had largely been leveled by Russian artillery shelling and airstrikes.

The images also showed what the company said was a grocery store in the western part of the city. Outside, a line of what Maxar said was hundreds of people could be seen snaking through a parking lot.

Ukrainian officials have said for days that food and water supplies for the tens of thousands of residents who stayed behind in the strategically important city have dwindled amid relentless Russian bombardment. The officials have accused Russian forces of blocking supplies and shelling and capturing those trying to flee. NBC News has not been able to independently confirm the accounts.

Russian officials have said the country’s armed forces don’t target civilians. A Kremlin readout said that In a phone call Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron — who has tried to broker an evacuation from the city — Putin discussed his military’s efforts to “provide urgent humanitarian assistance” and to “ensure the safe evacuation of civilians.”

“It was stressed that in order to resolve the grave humanitarian situation in this city, Ukrainian nationalist militants must stop resisting and lay down their arms,” the readout said.

WASHINGTON — Members of the Ukrainian parliament visiting the U.S. Congress are urging their American allies to send more military supplies — air support, tanks and other equipment — to push the Russians out of their country.

As the Ukrainian legislators spoke Tuesday at a Capitol Hill news conference, one of their cellphones blared with the sound of an air raid siren going off in the country back home.

The Ukrainians spoke at a roundtable with members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, a longstanding group from the U.S. House focused Ukrainian issues.

U.S. officials are trying to clarify what Biden meant when he said Monday that American troops are training Ukrainian troops.

White House officials denied there was formal training going on but confirmed that U.S. troops in Poland are having regular "interactions" with Ukrainian troops there to teach them how to use U.S. and foreign military equipment.

The equipment is transiting through Poland to to Ukrainian government and the training involves mostly basic military assistance, such as communications equipment, as opposed to larger systems, officials said.

U.S. troops are also helping their Ukrainian counterparts learn how to use even larger equipment, which is what Biden was referencing in his remarks, according to the officials.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Gen. Tod Wolters, Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, said there are "liaisons that are there that are being given advice," which echoed what Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a news conference.

While Russian military leaders said Tuesday they would scale back their operations near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded in an address to his people that now is not the time to let down their guard.

"We should not lose vigilance," Zelenskyy said in a video on Telegram. "The situation has not become easier. The scope of challenges did not shrink."

Russia's apparent decision to shift its focus away from Kyiv, which was met with skepticism from the West, comes amid another round of talks that have signaled progress is being made that might end the deadly conflict.

Still, even though a "negotiation process" with Russia continues, Zelenskyy warned that "the enemy is still on our territory" and that while "the signals we hear from the negotiating platform can be called positive ... these signals do not drown out the ruptures of Russian shells."

In a letter to White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan, a bipartisan group of 25 senators led by Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., urged the Biden administration to rush lethal aid to Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing war. 

“America’s commitments to Ukraine and to our NATO allies demand we expedite the delivery of weapons and capabilities to our allies and partners; Ukraine can win this fight if we help them win this fight,” they wrote.

The senators, including members of a recent bipartisan congressional delegation to Poland and Germany,  requested information that included a list of lethal and nonlethal aid provided to Ukraine along with its delivery status in addition to an inventory and assessment of equipment that could be provided to Ukraine from various sources. 

“The U.S. mission in Ukraine must go beyond ensuring the country merely has the means to defend itself against Russia aggression," they wrote. "The strategy must deliver Ukraine necessary weapons to defend itself, counter the Russia forces’ advance, and give the Ukrainian people a chance to win this war.”

A small number of Russian troops have moved, mostly northward, away from Kyiv, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said, but he reiterated that the U.S. views it as a "repositioning."

“We are not prepared to call this a retreat or even a withdrawal,” Kirby said at a news conference.

He said the small number of troops the Pentagon has seen moving are “not a significant chunk of the multiple battalion tactical groups Russia has around Kyiv" and warned that the threat to the Ukrainian capital was far from over.

Pentagon officials believe the movement is “likely more a repositioning to be used elsewhere in Ukraine," Kirby said, warning that Russia could launch a "major offensive against other areas of Ukraine."