The aim of Russia’s new military offensive in eastern Ukraine is to conquer land, establish a link between eastern territories and Crimea and crush Ukraine’s armed forces, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuznyak said Russian forces were attacking along the entire front line in eastern Ukraine, pressing the siege of Mariupol in the south and trying to encircle towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“The objective is to defeat Ukrainian forces, take control over the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and establish a land corridor to Crimea,” Motuznyak said in a briefing.
Russian-backed separatists who rebelled in 2014 declared so-called people’s republics on territory they control in parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that Moscow wants to take Mariupol and all the territory that Ukrainian government forces still hold in Luhansk and Donetsk to create a land link with Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
“The main efforts are to break through the positions held by Ukrainian troops and they have not stopped trying to gain full control over Mariupol,” Motuznyak said.
Summarizing Russia’s tactics, he stated: “In general, they are: preparation of powerful artillery, attempt to invade specific positions, attempts to prevent the actions of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, attempts to surround our units and capture settlements. Russia is mostly waging war according to Soviet-era textbooks.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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