Russia plans to fully occupy the Donbas in six months, says Zelenskyy
Russia considers the complete occupation of the Donbas to be its minimum military objective and, according to Ukrainian intelligence, expects to achieve it in about half a year. At the same time, Russian leadership may have received assessments indicating that implementing such a plan would take at least one and a half to two years.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin seeks to fully occupy Donbas and views this as Russia’s minimum objective in the war against Ukraine.
“He wants to occupy Donbas. He believes that his goal—his minimum goal—is to fully occupy Donbas, and he is convincing his people, using information from intelligence and the military—especially military intelligence—by saying that it will take us one month, then two months, three months, and then half a year to occupy the Donbas,” Zelenskyy said.
The president noted that the Ukrainian side is aware of information suggesting that Russian leadership may have been told that achieving this goal would take significantly longer.
“I know that they told him it would supposedly take half a year to occupy Donbas, and I know that some people told him: ‘Listen, according to our estimates, we believe it will take you at least two years or a year and a half,’” the president noted.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also emphasized that the exact content of the assessments that may have been provided to Russian leadership is unknown to the Ukrainian side.
“They told the truth—they don’t know, but they can look at the kilometers of territory that he (Putin—IF-U) has occupied over the past two years. I’m sorry, but less territory has been occupied than he wants right now. So the situation is complicated: his assessment is incorrect,” the head of state said.
Thus, according to the President of Ukraine, Russian estimates regarding the timeline for the complete occupation of the Donbas vary, and the actual pace of the seizure of Ukrainian territory, in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s view, does not correspond to the Kremlin’s stated plans.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about this in an interview with CBS News.
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