Putin has not decided yet whether to try to make Donbas a part of Russia or leave it as a third territory.
The Head of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, stated this in his interview with "NB".
He said that the final decision would depend on many factors, the main of which is control over the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
"Because even for a sick mind, it will be an illegitimate situation when one part of Donbas is still under their control, and another is not. They need the whole territory to officially say that the people of Donbas have chosen their path," - said Kyrylo Budanov.
He also noted that the russian occupiers had special strategies for the South of Ukraine.
"The sick mind of the russian leadership contains two ideas that they nurture. The first one is the recreation of the Tavriya province, which existed for a short time within the Russian Empire. This is the territory of the Crimea, the Kherson region, a part of the Mykolayiv region, and even a small part of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, with the administrative center in the city of Simferopol. This is the idea they are working on for now, - he said. - The second idea, which can rarely be heard, but still, it exists, is the so-called Nebesne Misto [Heaven City]. This idea includes the Odesa and Kherson regions, a part of the Mykolaiv region, the city of Dnipro, and a part of the Donetsk region. There was such a concept. As I say: this is the work of a sick mind.
The Head of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence also said that the transportation of grain and agricultural machines from the Kherson region is being done to create a demographic and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
"Only then will they be able to deal with the majority of the population. It is very easy to manipulate the population when people are deprived of everything and offered humanitarian aid. In order not to spend millions, russians will spend pennies, giving people bread crumbs," - suggested Kyrylo Budanov.
The US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Michael Carpenter said that Washington has "highly reliable" intelligence information that russia will try to annex Donetsk and Luhansk regions "sometime in mid-May." Also, Moscow has a similar plan for the Kherson region.