Russia Ukraine war, page-78071

The military pulled back from around Kyiv and Chernihiv and regrouped in the north-east. The main goal was now the "liberation of Donbas" - broadly referring to Ukraine's two industrial regions in the east of Luhansk and Donetsk.

The reason for the withdrawal was a failure to appreciate the agility of Ukrainian forces or to secure supply lines. An early symbol of Russia's poor logistics was a 64km (40-mile) armoured convoy that ground to a halt near Kyiv.

Russia's most recent retreat from the southern city of Kherson on 11 November was also down to destroyed supply lines and disrupted command systems, according to Ukraine's commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhny.