INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As high-level delegations from the United States and Russia arrive in Saudi Arabia for the second round of bilateral talks aimed at ending
long as possible is imperative for seizing as much Ukrainian territory as it can and getting an upper hand over Kyiv in relations with the
Russian-occupied regions, including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, said a current Russian official.Moscow claims that the Donetsk, Luhansk,
Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are Russian territory despite not fully controlling any of them.Moscow is bent on solidifying control over
these regions at any cost, as Putin cannot politically afford to abandon them after enshrining their status in the Constitution, a
We need all of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson
seize parts of another Ukrainian region such as Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy and then offer a trade for Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the official
After the invasion failed in its initial goals of capturing Kyiv and decapitating the Ukrainian leadership, Beseda was reportedly placed
side, Moscow believes that the exact location of the dividing line is not of critical importance to Washington, two Russian officials told
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the state-run Channel One broadcaster on Thursday night.Moscow wants these negotiations to be worked out
in as much detail as the second Minsk Agreements
Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-friendly journal Russia in Global Affairs
without external help before a peace deal is reached."The Russian army is incapable of quickly and fully occupying the territories of the
four annexed Ukrainian regions
For Russians, capturing even a couple of villages is seen as a huge success," Sharp told The Moscow Times."In order to cross the Dnipro and
extraordinary would have to happen
This is an extremely difficult task
Either the Russian army would have to be dramatically strengthened, which cannot happen suddenly or out of nowhere, or there would need to
Russia is betting on wearing down the enemy over time," Sharp said.
