Russia Targets to Take Full Control of Southern Ukraine: Russian General

Russia Targets to Take Full Control of Southern Ukraine: Russian General. 

As part of the “second stage” of the offensive on Ukraine, Russia’s military declared it intends to conquer all of Donbas and southern Ukraine and extend as far south as Moldova. 

The declaration establishes significantly broader war objectives than Moscow had previously acknowledged.

“One of the Russian army’s priorities since the commencement of the second stage of the special operation. It began just two days ago and has been to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will enable the creation of a land route to Crimea and significantly impact key aspects of the Ukrainian economy,” Rustam Minnekayev, acting Central Military District Commander, stated at the Union of Defense Plants of the Sverdlovsk Region’s annual conference on Friday.

“Taking control of southern Ukraine would enable the Russian army access to Transdniestria, where facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population have also been documented,” Minnekayev said. 

Transdniestria is a de facto breakaway province of Moldova that is not recognized internationally but has pro-Russian leaders and approximately 1,500 Russian troops stationed there.

To legitimize its invasion of Ukraine two months ago, the Kremlin exploited charges of discrimination against the Russian-speaking community and accusations against Ukraine and NATO for allegedly infringing on Russia’s security.

The Russian strike on Moldova has rattled the Moldovan administration, with Moldovans afraid that Russian President Vladimir Putin may move further west due to the attack.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine on February 24, Moldova has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. 

Its administration has criticized Russia’s conflict and, together with Georgia and Ukraine, has applied to join the European Union. 

It also wants the EU’s help in dealing with the influx of refugees, and it wants the group to increase its aid to the country.

However, it is attempting to strike a delicate balance with NATO to convey that it is not eager to become Russia’s next target.

Moscow claimed that “the first stage” of the attack had been completed before the Russian military retreated from Kyiv and that it is now concentrating its efforts on the “liberation” of two eastern regions to bring them under the control of pro-Russian leaders in the so-called breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

Military experts and Western authorities connected Russia’s pullback from Kyiv to heavy losses in soldiers and equipment, as Ukrainian resistance looked to have surpassed Russian expectations and thwarted Russia’s intended intention of seizing the capital quickly and declaring victory.