A month after launching the unprovoked offensive on Ukraine, Russia on Friday said it would focus on completely liberating the Donbass region, a territory claimed by two Russian-backed separatist states since 2014.

Russia seems to have shifted its focus from the ground offensive aimed at Ukrainian capital Kyiv to the eastern region, AP reported.

"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 the Donbass," Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate, said on Friday.

According to the defence ministry, Russian-backed separatists had 93 percent control over Ukraine's Luhansk region and 54 percent of the Donetsk region, which together make up the Donbass region, Russian news agencies reported.

Earlier goals

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had claimed the launch of the military operation on Ukraine was to “demilitarise and denazify” the country. But on Tuesday, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Kremlin had three main objectives for waging war on Ukraine -- to subjugate its neighbour, enhance Russian power and prestige and weaken the West.

"Russia has thus far manifestly failed to accomplish all three objectives. In fact, it has thus far achieved the opposite," Sullivan said on Tuesday.

Why is Russia scaling back?

Since the beginning of the offensive, Russian forces have faced fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.

Some Russian forces near Kyiv have recently taken dug-in defensive positions, indicating a surprisingly stout Ukrainian resistance, AP reported.

Russia had launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24 and sent in thousands of troops to weaken its southern neighbour’s military capabilities.

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Back then, some US military officials had contemplated that Russia would capture Kyiv in just a few days and break the Ukrainian military within a couple of weeks.

Although Russian forces repeatedly struck Ukraine capital Kyiv, they have failed to encircle the city till now.

Following the attack, the US and its allies imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia to force it to withdraw its troops.

According to Ukraine’s military, around 15,000 Russian soldiers were killed in combat, while Rudskoi claimed 1,351 soldiers died in the operation and 3,825 had been injured, Reuters reported.

Stiff resistance

Speaking in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron said it is too early to understand if the Russians had changed their approach. However, it was clear that the Russian operation was thwarted by the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, he said.

From the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military was caught off-guard by the level of pushback by Ukrainian fighters, said analysts.

"Their war aims are/were much wider than Donbass, leaving their force divided with poorly coordinated attacks on multiple fronts by unprepared troops," Reuters quoted a source as saying.

Can’t take the country away from Ukrainian people

According to Sullivan, the people of Ukraine refused to submit to Russia and fought bravely, defending their home. Hence, even if Russia took over Ukrainian territory by brutal force, it would never be able to “take the country away from the Ukrainian people", he said.

On the other hand, Russia’s show of prowess was hurt when its military dramatically underperformed. The country’s economy has also suffered due to the massive sanctions imposed by the US and EU, with the tech and defence sector getting choked off from key inputs.

“Russia is a pariah in the international community," Sullivan said.

Not giving up

Russia has not completely ruled out storming of Ukrainian cities that it has blockaded, Rudskoi said, adding that the forces will now concentrate on the complete liberation of Donbass.

Russia may now want to continue the war with a narrow focus, a US analyst told AP. Moscow may use the opportunity to regroup from early failures and also make Donbas a new starting point, the analyst said.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, told AP that Putin was looking for a way out of the Ukraine quagmire.

“Focusing its military goals on control of the Donbass could be a way of scaling back without admitting defeat," Thompson said.

(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)