In a major strategic turnaround, a senior Russian general has said that Moscow’s initial goal in Ukraine has been achieved and that the Kremlin will now focus on eastern Ukraine.
Sergei Rudskoi, the deputy chief of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff said the attack on Kyiv was a deception operation and that the fighting capacity of the Ukrainian military had now been significantly reduced, allowing Russia to focus on “liberating” the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
But Western security officials told the BBC that the move showed that Moscow knew its pre-war strategy had failed. One of the officials said that this change in strategy shows that Moscow has realized that it can not fight on several fronts at the same time.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence ministry said Russian-backed separatists now controlled 93 percent of Ukraine’s Luhansk region and 54 percent of the Donetsk region.
