Political analyst Ruslan Bortnik commented on a Financial Times article stating that Putin's main goal is to seize Odesa, and assessed whether this is true and whether Russia has the strength for such an offensive, reports Politeka.
He spoke about this in his blog.
"Moscow has two strategic goals in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Yes, they have more strategic objectives, of course, but those relate to the West, particularly the United States. But overall, Russia has only two strategic goals — the capture of Odesa and Kyiv. That’s it. All other territorial control is secondary for them right now," Ruslan Bortnik claims.
As he explains, Moscow dreams of Kyiv because the Ukrainian capital is a symbolic place for all of Russian statehood and civilization. Without control over Kyiv, no Russian leader can convince Russian society that the war ended in victory. The capture of Odesa, the expert continues, would allow full control of the Black Sea, cut off the rest of Ukraine from international trade, and render Ukraine, from an economic standpoint, a non-functional state.
"That’s why I believe Western sources are right. But Russia currently does not have the strength to achieve either of these two goals. They might gain those capabilities over time — in a year, two, or three — but not now. For now, Russia will focus on tactical objectives, such as diverting attention toward the Sumy and Chernihiv directions, and attempting to fully occupy the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions," Bortnik states.
According to the expert, this is the "boa constrictor tactic": the strike does not crush its prey immediately or break its bones, it works differently — the prey exhales, the boa squeezes, and the prey can no longer inhale as much as before. So, he concludes, Russia has decided to wage a long war and wait for either an internal or external crisis to break Ukraine and its allies.
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Politeka also informed, The Armed Forces of Ukraine have begun to create "drone lines" with a 50-kilometer strike zone: Russian troops will not be able to launch offensives.
In addition, Politeka informed, Trump changes strategy: expert reveals how the US will achieve peace in Ukraine.
