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by IANS |
Kiev, March 21 (IANS) After failing to capture Kiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been forced to change his war tactics in Ukraine and is moving to a strategy of "protecting key territorial goals".
This was reported by The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed high-ranking US officials, said UNIAN.
One of the interlocutors said that, given the data received, the effective defence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces prompted Putin to adjust his tactics.
Now the Russian President wants to force Kiev to accept Moscow's claims to the southern and eastern territories of Ukraine.
Thus, Russia wants to create a "land corridor" between the west of the country and the occupied Crimea in 2014, as well as expand control over Donbas.
At the same time, Putin will continue his military pressure, including shelling of cities, hoping that this will force Zelensky to give up hopes of joining the alliance with the West and agree to neutral status and other demands of the Kremlin, the report said.
If Putin's demands are not met, then, according to US officials, Russia will try to keep all the territories occupied by its regular troops and continue to escalate.
"Based on our military assessments, it seems that Putin is returning to the blockade tactics," one of the officials said.
According to him, for citizens in the surrounding cities, this means weeks, and possibly months of missile and artillery attacks by the Russian army.
Former senior State Department official Daniel Fried said Putin's goal of seizing Ukraine has not changed, "only his tactics have changed".
