Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Tuesday that the war with Moscow was entering a “protracted phase” as the Russians seek to take full control of the Donbass region and occupy the south.
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“Russia is preparing for a long-term military operation,” he told EU Defense Ministers and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“The war is entering a protracted phase,” he added in this speech, the text of which was published on his Facebook account.
According to Mr. Reznikov, Russian forces are currently fortifying their positions in the territories they occupy in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, in order to “enter into a defensive position if necessary”.
“Currently, the main Kremlin efforts are focused on attempts to encircle and destroy the consolidation of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions” in the east of the country, partly in the hands of pro-Russian separatists, he continued. .
Mr. Reznikov also noted that Moscow’s goal is to “create a land corridor connecting Russia to Crimea,” a peninsula it annexed in 2014, and to occupy “all of southern Ukraine.”
He called on Ukraine’s western allies for more coordination of arms deliveries to Kyiv “to liberate our lands as quickly as possible.”
For its part, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry indicated in its evening report on Tuesday that Russian forces are carrying out “attacks along the entire line of contact” in the Donetsk region, and partly in the neighboring Lugansk region.
Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Telegram that seven civilians were killed “by the Russians” and six others were wounded during the day on Tuesday.
In the Lugansk region, Russian troops are trying to break through near Popasna and in the direction of Severodonetsk, one of the main cities of the Ukrainian-controlled region, for his part noted its governor Sergio Gaydych, citing “the intensification of bombardments. on the civilian population “, in particular in Girsky.
In front of his EU counterparts, Defense Minister Oleksich Reznikov also noted that Moscow’s goal is to “create a land corridor connecting Russia to Crimea,” a peninsula it annexed in 2014, and to occupy “the whole of southern Ukraine.”
He called on Ukraine’s western allies for more coordination of arms deliveries to Kyiv “to liberate our lands as quickly as possible.”
