Russian troops went into a tactical retreat near Kyiv and Kharkiv, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the President's Office head, said.

He noted that it was relatively quiet throughout Ukraine as of 17:00, with the exception of Volnovakha, which Ukrainian troops reoccupied, and the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv, where the enemy tried to advance in separate groups, but came under fire from Ukrainian aviation, artillery and territorial defense resistance.

"Part of the enemy was defeated [near Kyiv], part goes north and puts up defenses at the lines of 15-20 km from the Ukrainian capital so that our artillery does not get there. This means that the Russian troops went into a tactical retreat, at least for certain areas, which is good news," Arestovych said at a briefing on the situation in the country at the President's Office.

According to him, such a tactical retreat shows that the plan of the Russian army to seize Kyiv has failed.

"The general situation shows that the enemy is exhausted. It threw the remaining combat-ready units at Kyiv in order to take its outskirts and declare some kind of victory. And also at Kharkiv. But in Kharkiv it was surrounded and defeated. Same thing in Kyiv. This is a tactical retreat shows that this plan of theirs failed too," Arestovych said.