About 20 percent of the Russian forces around Kyiv, and some forces near the Chernobyl nuclear site, are in various stages of moving north away from the capital, the Pentagon said Wednesday, with some personnel crossing into Belarus.

But the Defense Department does not consider this movement proof that the Russian government is serious about its vow to let up the attacks on major cities, in what Moscow characterized this week as a show of good faith amid ongoing peace negotiations.

Rather, the Pentagon’s current intelligence assessment is that Russia intends to “refit these troops, resupply them and probably employ them elsewhere in Ukraine,” spokesman John Kirby told reporters, indicating that the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east has emerged as Russia’s chief priority as it looks for an opportunity to save face after a month-long stream of setbacks in its invasion.