Russia says its goal is to control southern Ukraine, as well as Donbass

A Russian soldier walks through the ruins of eastern Mariupol on April 15. (Story Picture Agency / Shutterstock)

Russia has revealed that the goal of its invasion of Ukraine is to take “complete control” of southern Ukraine as well as the eastern region of Donbass.

The announcement by a senior military official marks the first time Russia has admitted it is fighting to create a land corridor through Ukrainian territory connecting Russia with Crimea, the peninsula it annexed in 2014.

“Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which began just two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbass and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea, “he said in May. General Rustam Minekayev, acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, told TASS, Russia’s state news agency.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Union of Defense Industry Enterprises of the Sverdlovsk Region, Minekayev was quoted by TASS as saying that the goal was to create a land corridor between Ukraine’s eastern Donbass and Crimea.

He added that control of southern Ukraine would give Russian forces access to Transnistria, a separatist state in Moldova where a contingent of Russian forces has been stationed since the early 1990s.

Currently, Russian forces have only partial control over southern Ukraine, with the Ukrainian government still controlling the key cities of Nikolaev and Odessa, and some Ukrainian forces holding a steel plant in the besieged port of Mariupol.

In recent weeks, Russia has withdrawn its forces to northern Ukraine after failing to take Kyiv, with the Russian military claiming that its strategic goals have shifted to taking over the entire eastern Donbass region.

Asked by reporters on Friday to clarify what territories are meant by southern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment and asked questions from the defense ministry.

Ukrainian authorities have warned in recent days that Russian forces occupying the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson plan to hold a fictitious referendum to declare a so-called “Kherson People’s Republic” in the coming days. which marked the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February.