UK confirms full withdrawal of Russian troops from North Ukraine

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Moscow: The UK`s Ministry of Defence on Friday announced that Russian forces have fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine to Belarus and Russia.

The Ministry added that "at least some of these forces will be transferred to east Ukraine to fight in Donbas" which comprises the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

It also said that many of these forces will need "significant replenishment before being ready to deploy further east".

"Any mass redeployment from the north likely to take at least a week minimum," the Ministry said in the update posted on Twitter.

It added that Russian shelling of cities in Ukraine`s "east and south continues and Russian forces have advanced further south from the strategically important city of Izyum" which remains under Moscow`s control.

Russia`s main effort now is eastern Ukraine, after withdrawing its forces from the area around Kyiv in the north, the BBC said in a report.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that Russia has "suffered significant losses" in its ongoing war in Ukraine, but denied that Moscow has carried out "war crimes" in Kyiv.

"We have suffered significant losses of troops. This is a great tragedy for us," Peskov told Sky News on Thursday without giving an exact number of the Russian casualties.

"Our military are doing their best to bring an end to that operation. And we do hope that in coming days, in the foreseeable future, this operation will reach its goals or will finish it by the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegation," he said while referring to the ongoing war as "operation".