Russia is aiming for full control over southern Ukraine and the Black Sea region, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Russians have not abandoned plans to seize five major Ukrainian cities, which would cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea.
This is happening against the backdrop of US-initiated “peace talks” — yet another weapon of destruction used by Russia to force Kyiv’s capitulation.
Moscow plans to seize regional centers — Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa. This would effectively mean the occupation of almost half of Ukraine and nearly its entire eastern half.
That Russia does not plan to end the war was confirmed in February by Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov. On the anniversary of full-scale war, he said that Russia has not achieved all of its goals in the war against Ukraine and “will go further.”
The Kremlin’s map of appetites stretches to the sea
“I see Moscow's ambitious plans. They have not abandoned the seizure of Donetsk Oblast. They still plan to create a buffer zone in Kharkiv Oblast and Sumy Oblast,” Palisa stressed.
The Russians count on advancing as far as possible in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast and create conditions “under which they could claim the seizure of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa,” he said.
Kremlin’s plans run into bloody arithmetic
Palisa emphasized that he does not see the enemy having the capacity to realize these plans in the next six months. According to him, the Russians have lost more than 450,000 of their troops to occupy less than 1% of Ukraine’s total territory.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office added that to occupy another 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in Donetsk Oblast, the Russians would need approximately a year and a half and resources equivalent to the current size of the Russian Armed Forces grouping on Ukrainian territory.
Russia’s war has long ceased to be a “local Ukrainian problem”: the same drones Russia uses against Ukrainian cities are appearing in Iran’s strikes in the Middle East. The longer the war lasts, the deeper its consequences take root in global instability.
