Russia has announced its next move against Ukraine as war enters two months already.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had unleashed the biggest war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Tracknews recalls.
Putin’s initial plan according to reports was to overrun and bring down President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s led government of Ukraine.
The Russian leader also seeks to cut off the Ukrainian government’s desire to join the Western defensive alliance Nato.
Speaking on Friday, the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekaev said Russia is now fighting to establish a land corridor through Ukrainian territory connecting Russia to Crimea, the peninsula it annexed in 2014.
“Since the beginning of the second phase of the special operation, which began literally two days ago, one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to Crimea,” he said.
Tracknews understands that Minnekaev mentioned this today at the annual general meeting of the Union of Defense Industry Enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region.
CNN quoted the General as saying that if Russia could get control over Ukraine’s south, that would give the country’s forces access to Transnistria, a separatist statelet in Moldova, where a contingent of Russian forces has been stationed since the early 1990s.
Russia has in recent weeks withdrawn its forces in northern Ukraine after a failure to take Kyiv.
Meanwhile, the United States has again supported Ukraine with a package of $800 million in military aid to battle Russia.
President Joe Biden announced this on Thursday, April 21, 2022, Tracknews understands.
According to the president, the new package was aimed at helping the Ukrainian forces meet the emerging Russian offensive in the country’s east.
Biden was optimistic that the fight will take a new shape, differently from that of the north around Kyiv, where Ukrainian forces successfully beat Russian forces back in the first six weeks of the war.
The newest round of US support to Ukraine will include 72 155mm howitzers, 72 armoured vehicles to tow them, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, and more than 120 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones recently developed by the US Air Force specifically to address Ukraine’s needs, Tracknews understands.
