Russia will defeat Ukrainian forces in the entire eastern Donbas region and is unlikely to withdraw from a huge swath of land on Ukraine’s southern coast, Russia’s ambassador to London told Reuters.
Since the February 24 invasion, Russian forces have controlled a large swath of territory in southern Ukraine, over Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and are slowly pushing Ukrainian forces out of both separatist regions of eastern Ukraine supported by Russia, which has recognized them as independent states.
When asked how the conflict could end, Russian Ambassador Andrey Kelin said that Ukrainian forces would be pushed out of all of Donbas and that it was difficult to see Russian and Russian-backed forces withdrawing from southern Ukraine.
“We will liberate all of Donbas,” Kelin told Reuters in an interview at his London residence where Winston Churchill was discussing World War II strategy with his ambassador Joseph Stalin.
“Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we already have the experience that after the withdrawal provocations will start and everyone will be killed and all that.”
Sooner or later, Kelin said, Ukraine will have to make a decision: sign a peace deal with Russia or “continue to slide toward destruction.”
The Russian ambassador’s remarks provide an insight into the likely outcome of the conflict in Ukraine, which will essentially be a forced partition with Russia’s former Soviet neighbor having lost more than a fifth of its post-Soviet territory.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday blamed the West for decades of aggression against Moscow and warned that if he wants to try to defeat Russia on the battlefield, he is welcome to try, but it will bring tragedy for Ukraine.
“Is an escalation possible? Of course,” Kellin said. “If the arms flows are organized in such a way as to endanger our strategic situation, our defense, we will take serious measures against such a thing.”
Source: Capital
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