Russian air attacks are now focused mainly on areas of eastern Ukraine, and Russian forces are trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the region, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Thursday.
He said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain.
"The situation is under control," he said on national television.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
