Russia is digging in for a long war in Ukraine and still wants to conquer the entire country, a senior Ukrainian military official said on Thursday.
Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told a military briefing that although he did not expect Moscow to launch an attack from Belarus, Russian was training new troops on its neighbour’s soil and had moved military aircraft there.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar, at the same briefing, warned against allowing complacency to set in after recent Russian military setbacks.
“The Kremlin … is seeking to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed confrontation,” Gromov said.
Malyar added: “We and the world should not relax, because the ultimate goal of the Russian Federation is to conquer all of Ukraine, and then it can move on.”
Gromov did not say what Russia’s aim might be in prolonging the already nearly 10-month-old war.
Ukrainian officials have portrayed the Kremlin as desperate to reverse recent military setbacks – which included a retreat from the southern city of Kherson after months of occupation – and secure victories to justify the war to the Russian public.
The Kremlin has never fully defined the goals of its Feb. 24 invasion, which it said was partly intended to protect Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine.
It said last week that it was still set on securing at least the bulk of the parts of east and south Ukraine that it has declared its own, but appeared to give up on seizing other areas in the west and northeast that Ukraine has recaptured.
