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Monday, March 21, 2022
Unnamed US officials say Putin shifting strategy to holding southeast Ukraine — report
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Unnamed senior US officials tell the Wall Street Journal that they believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is changing tack and will no longer focus on seizing Kyiv.
The report says that after Russian troops did not quickly take Ukraine as they expected, the objective is now to hold areas in the southeast of the country, and then use that to extract key demands from Kyiv, including a pledge of Ukrainian neutrality.
Previously, the US and allies believed that the Kremlin aimed to quickly seize Kyiv and install a puppet regime.
The officials note that the situation is shifting and Putin “might expand his war aims, should his military begin to have more success against Ukraine’s forces.”
The Wall Street Journal says some officials believe “the status of the capital remains an open question,” and it remains unclear whether Russia has the ability to take and hold Kyiv in the face of Ukrainian resistance.
“His objective has not changed at all,” Daniel Fried, a former senior State Department official who served as US ambassador to Poland tells the newspaper. “What has changed is his tactics.”
According to reports earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has survived a number of assassination attempts by Russian mercenaries.
Meanwhile, at least six people were killed in overnight shelling of the Ukrainian capital.
The Times of Israel Community.