Russian activity near Kiev during this rescue-op amounted to a fixing operation meant only to keep large bodies of ukie troops out of Donbass at the time. Making anything more than that out of it is basically lying.
“Russian activity near Kiev during this rescue-op amounted to a fixing operation meant only to keep large bodies of ukie troops out of Donbass at the time”
Nonsense. Why would they send 14 Battalion Tactical Groups against Kiev to pin 4 Ukrainian ones in the area.
During the first weeks of the Russians made major offensive in the Donbass. They only sent 5 BTGs to that front against the much larger Ukrainian force. That was the pinning action.
Kiev was the priority with the main Russian force concentration from day one.