Russian commanders convinced Putin that their troops can fully capture D...

❗️Russian commanders have convinced Putin that their troops can fully capture Donbas by autumn. Having gained control of Donbas, Putin will not stop and will put forward new territorial demands. Putin’s real goal is at minimum all of Left-Bank Ukraine, including Kyiv and Odesa, Financial Times reports, citing two people who had direct contact with Putin, two more informed sources, as well as Ukrainian intelligence data.

Thanks to FT for its sobriety and accurate assessment of Putin’s intentions. For the 746th time, we have to state the same things over and over again, but what else can you do when the White House and half the rest of the world live in a parallel universe where Putin is supposedly looking for a way out of the war... Wake the fuck up!

Details.

▪️Putin intends to continue seizing Ukraine by force. His senior commanders have convinced him that they will capture all of Donbas by autumn. But they do not intend to stop there. After Donbas, new territorial demands will be put forward.

▪️Russia’s vulnerability to Ukrainian drones, as well as its minor advances on the battlefield, have had little effect on Putin’s confidence that the Ukrainian front will collapse, sources say.

▪️The public rhetoric also does not indicate any change in priorities. At a press conference on Saturday, Putin said he was focused on the "final defeat of the enemy."

▪️On the contrary, his position has hardened: Putin rejected European proposals to act as mediators, and his close associates see no point in further negotiations until Ukraine withdraws from Donbas.

▪️Most likely, if Donbas is captured, Putin will next demand that Kherson and Zaporizhzhia be handed over to him, territories already written into his constitution, according to Ukrainian intelligence.

▪️One of the people who had contact with Putin told FT how he personally urged him to stop at the current line. He refused.

“I tried to persuade him to stop at the current line. But he keeps saying: ‘No, I can’t agree to that.’”

▪️Putin’s true ambitions are to secure Ukraine’s subordination at minimum to the left bank of the Dnipro, including Kyiv and Odesa, two sources involved in back-channel negotiations said.

“He [Putin] is being told that the Ukrainians are barely holding on, that their front is collapsing, and that they are running out of men.”

▪️At Saturday’s press conference, Putin even hinted that his ambitions are not limited to Kyiv, but extend all the way to Ukraine’s western borders. (I also specifically highlighted this exact point, - ed.)

▪️The only upside is that the prospect of a breakthrough at the front remains remote. Russia is advancing at a tiny pace, while Ukraine is now inflicting even more damage than before. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will become an even bigger problem for Russia than Donbas, since it would have to force the Dnipro River. (In the case of Zaporizhzhia, not entirely, part of Zaporizhzhia is on the left bank, - ed.).