Ukraine leader says war at a "turning point" as U.S. and U.K. say Putin, deluded, is regrouping Russia's forces
Russian forces were still shelling areas near Ukraine's capital Thursday, two days after Moscow said it would scale back its attack there to facilitate peace talks. Ukraine's president told his people Wednesday night that the fight to repel Russia's invasion had reached a "turning point," and he asked the U.S. for more weapons and other assistance to turn the tide.
In a late-night video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cast doubt on Russia's stated decision to "drastically reduce" attacks around Kyiv and the northeast city of Chernihiv. He said Russian forces were building up in his country's eastern Donbas regions in preparation for a major offensive there. Russia has made it clear that it will shift the focus of its "special military operation" to Donbas.
U.S. officials believe units that Russia is pulling back from Kyiv will be refitted for use elsewhere in Ukraine, but given the damage sustained by Russian forces during the first month of Putin's war, making the equipment battle-ready again could take weeks.
A British intelligence chief said Thursday that Russian forces were suffering from shortages of both "weapons and morale," leading some to sabotage their own equipment and refuse to follow orders. He said the seemingly poorly trained and equipped troops had even accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
The assessment by Sir Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency, that Putin had "massively misjudged the situation" in Ukraine, came a day after U.S. officials said intelligence showed Putin had been misled by his own military commanders about the difficulties Russia was encountering.
Ukrainian forces have held Vladimir Putin's ground forces to a stalemate. As CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams reported from near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, next to a burned-out Russian military vehicle, there's evidence even in Ukraine's artillery-battered south of Putin's stalled invasion.
