Russia’s Defense Ministry signaled that the first phase of its Ukraine operation hAS finished and moving on to the next operation to liberate Donbass from Ukrainian control. U.S. officials and Western press branded Putin’s Ukraine mission as “regime change” in Kiev, something that completely distorted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objective in moving the battle to Ukrainian cities. Putin said from Day One that his objective was “demilitarizing and de-Nazifying” Ukraine, something questioned as absurd because Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky claims Jewish ancestry. But Putin’s sudden Pivot gives Washington and Kiev high-fives, claiming victory, preventing Putin from taking over the country. President Joe Biden, 79, likes to talk about Putin’s “false-flag” operations but what can be more “false-flag” than bogus claims about Russia’s war objectives?

Before Putin launched the Feb. 24 war, most military experts thought his focus would be on protecting Russian-speaking enclaves in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. So when Putin moved the Russian army all over Ukraine, it threw the Pentagon and other Western military experts for a loop. Zelensky has been telling Western powers to set up a no-fly-zone and send troops to prevent Putin from taking over other Eastern European countries. Zelensky hoped to create enough panic in Eastern Europe, especially in the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to believe the fake narrative that Putin wanted to reestablish the old Soviet Union or more bizarre yet the Tsarist Russian Empire. That fake narrative was exploited by Biden and Zelensky to turn the world against Putin. Now Putin turns his attention back to his original mission: Liberation of Donbass.

Biden and Zelensky can claim victory over Putin, realizing that Zelensky will remain in power, without the Kremlin reinstating a puppet government. No serious military analyst believes that Putin was out to conquer Ukraine, though deploying his army all over Ukraine fooled the experts. Laying waste to Ukraine’s major cities and towns, Putin served notice that the present security arrangement in Ukraine must be changed. Before the war started, Putin asked Biden to work on new security arrangements in Ukraine in Eastern Europe, something Biden dismissed as “non-starters.” Building up Russian forces to over 100,000 near the Ukraine border, Biden said for months that a Russian invasion was “imminent.” But the only think “imminent” was arming Ukraine to the teeth, something that still presents problems moving forward. Putin doesn’t want a U.S. puppet regime on his border.

Whether admitted to or not by the West, Putin’s decision to not move his military into urban combat to takeover Kiev and other major cities reflects the fact that it was never his military objective, always a fake U.S. and Ukrainian narrative. “Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian forces falling back on overextended supply lines, have allowed Ukraine to recover towns and defensive positions up to 35 km east of Kiev,” said British military intelligence. Ukraine and U.S. claims victory when the Russian army has been re-deployed to fight for the independence of Donbass, the Eastern region near the Russian border, home to the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. What Western officials don’t admit is that Putin could continue his aerial bombardments of Ukrainian cities and towns indefinitely. Putin’s pivot to Donbass was always part of his military plan.

Ukraine breathes a sigh to relief that it appears Putin has pivoted away from the fake Western narrative that he sought regime change in Kiev. Kiev, after all, was a Kremlin-friendly government until a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed, pro-Western coup toppled the Krmlin-friendly government of Vitktor Yanukovych. Once Yanukovych was chased out of Kiev, Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014 to protect his Sevastopol naval base, home to Russia warm-water fleet. “Their war aims are/were much wider than Donbass, leaving their force divided with poorly coordinated attacks on multiple fronts by unprepared troops,” said an unnamed source, pushing the fake narrative that Putin miscalculated badly, unable to complete his mission. Ukraine’s grossly exaggerated claims of Russian losses tell the real story that they hoped to win the propaganda war to drive Russia out.

Putin’s apparent pivot to re-deploy his forces to protect Russian-speaking enclaves in Donbass reconfirms his original objective to the Feb. 24 Ukraine War: Liberation of Donbass, home to the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. So as the battle shifts to Donbass, Biden and Zelensky will have to decide whether it’s worth the fight to battle the Russian army for control of Donbass. Before the war, Donbass already operated independent of Kiev, with Donetsk leader Denis Pushilin vowing to never be part of Ukraine. So when it comes to a ceasefire agreement and peace settlement, how far is Biden and Zelensky willing to go when it comes to taking over Donbass? They know that Pusllin has a formidable army capable, without Russian help, of defending the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Biden and Zelensky must now recalculate their war objectives.