Russia reveals it may want a bigger chunk of Ukraine

The head of Russian diplomacy said Wednesday that his country’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine could be extendedwhile European leaders have warned their citizens to prepare for sacrifices in the face of a conflict that shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

In recent months, Russian forces have focused their assault on eastern ukrainewhich with all indications Russia seems determined to annex as Crimea did in 2014.

But on Wednesday, the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrovtold the Russian state news agency that Moscow was now looking at south fringe also of Ukraine, naming in particular the regions of Cherson and Zaporizhzhiaas well as “a number of other territories”.

“This is a continuous process”Lavrov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

In comments that recall the justification offered by the president Vladimir Putin for the invasion, which he said Western military aggression had left him no choice, Lavrov said The allies of Ukraine they were to blame if Russia expanded its military goals.

He particularly emphasized the multiple rocket launchers that the US has begun delivering to Ukraine, which is credited with slowing down the Russian advance by hitting distant targets such as ammunition depots.

U.S. military officials said Wednesday that they planned to dispatch four more M142 HIMARS multi-rocket launch vehicles, in addition to more guided rockets that shot and more guided artillery ammo.

Russian officials have provided conflicting accounts at times contradictoryof their war objectives.

But Western officials have always mocked Moscow’s claims that its invasion is anything but an act of expansion, an attempt to regain the lost territory with the fall of the Soviet Union, and on Wednesday, even as Europe was baking in a heatwave for record books, they made it clear that a winter of war, feel the lack of energy and solicit solidarity.

“Putin is trying to put pressure on us this winter and it will fail dramatically if we stick together, “European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

In a speech announcing the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, Putin said Russia had no intention of occupying the country or “forcibly imposing anything on anyone.”

Moscow simply wanteddemilitarizeTo a neighbor he saw as a threat, he said.

He cited the danger of NATO missiles stationed in Ukraine and aimed at Russia, even though Ukraine is not a member of NATO and there are no such missiles on its territory.

This the narrative began to change when Russian forces unexpectedly stumbled upon trying to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Putin then began to point out that the protection of representatives of Russia in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine and its self-proclaimed republics was the main target of the Kremlin.

Since then, city after city in the region has fallen under a merciless Russian assault which has razed entire neighborhoods to the ground, killed thousands of civilians and sent many others to escape to safety.

Russian forces have taken over one of Donbas’ two provinces, Luhansk, and are now trying to bring the other, Donetsk, to its knees.

But the Russian victory is there not a foregone conclusionthe top US military officer said Wednesday.

“No, he’s not lost yet,” General Mark Milley said at a press conference when asked about the region’s prospects.

To the south, in Kherson, there were signs that Ukraine might be about to launch a wide-ranging counter-offensive.

In the past 48 hours, a critical bridge has been bombed, a Russian fighter jet has been launched into the sky, ammunition depots have been destroyed and a group of soldiers have been attacked.

Kherson, a port and shipbuilding center seized by Russia at the start of the war, is also a base for Russian military operations in southern Ukraine.

An attempt to recapture the city would have a immense symbolic value for the government of the president Volodymyr Zelenskybut from a strategic point of view, timing can also be critical.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said this week that Russia is planning annex the territoryHe captured, including Kherson.

“Ukraine and its Western partners may have a shrinking window of opportunity support a counter-offensive in Ukrainian territory occupied before the Kremlin annexed it, “said spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said Moscow was setting up proxy officials who would have to give “false” votes to join Russia and force residents to apply for Russian citizenship, and that it seemed ready to declare the ruble as official currency in the occupied territory, as it did after conquering the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

“Russia is starting to roll out a version of what you might call a playbook. annexation gamesKirby said.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced his Russian counterpart’s signal that Moscow could expand its military targets.

“Confessing the dream of taking over other Ukrainian lands,” Kuleba said on Twitter, “the Russian foreign minister shows that Russia rejects diplomacy and focuses on war and terror. Russians want blood, not words“.

In an interview with a Ukrainian magazine, one of Zelensky’s top aides expressed hope that US weapons will arrive in sufficient quantities to allow Ukrainian troops to prevailed before Russia could consolidate its conquests.

“It’s very important for us not to go in the winter,” said Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

“After the winter, when the Russians will have more time to dig, no doubt it will be more difficultL”.

Ukrainian officials have pushed the West to provide more weapons, especially long-range missile artillery.

Their hope is that with that firepower, they can not only block Russia’s advance, but also take back the territory lost.

“We are all working hard to rid Ukraine of the enemy,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the southern Ukrainian forces, said this week.

“We have only one goal”.

In announcing Wednesday that the United States would send four more HIMARS rocket launchers, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III seemed to be trying not to exaggerate their potential.

“That affects the pace of the fight and potentially creates some opportunities here,” Austin said.

“There is much more to do. HIMARS alone will not change, win or lose a battle. “

And the total number committed so far – 16 by the US and a smaller number by similar systems in allied countries – is far less than what Ukraine and outside military experts say is needed to achieve parity on the battlefield.

However, Ukrainian forces used one of the launchers to hit the Antonivsky Bridge in Kherson on Tuesday, an adviser to the country’s interior minister said.

The bridge was the main transit route for Russian supplies arriving from Crimea.

Eleven more attacks hit the bridge on Wednesday, according to the deputy head of the pro-Russian administration in Kherson.

The Ukrainian military also claimed to have detonated a Russian radar system in Kherson using shells fired from more than 60 miles away.

Ukraine was also withdrawing its cause from the battlefield.

In Washington, the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, appeared before Congress on Wednesday, a day after meeting with Jill Biden to the White House, to ask for more weapons to defend against the “Russian Hunger Games”.

In a rare appearance by a first foreign spouse before Congress, Zelenska showed photographs of children whose lives had been destroyed by the war.

Among them was Sophia, a girl from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, who lost her mother and arm in the war.

“Russia is destroying our people,” Zelenska said.

Reports provided by Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Carly Olson, John Ismay, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Stephanie Lai, Jim Tankersley and Eric Schmitt.

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