The war of russia against the Ukrainians has long been beyond the concept of a local conflict of medium intensity. Now there is reason to believe that hostilities will continue after the end of this year, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy and the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, Lt-Gen Mykhaylo Zabrodskyy, have said in an article for the Ukrinform news agency.
“A separate issue is the duration of this conflict. After all, in no way does it fit into either the announced russian “blitzkrieg” or the duration of the active phases of hostilities in the wars of the early 21st century. In any case, the duration of the war is already measured in months. And there is every reason to believe that this time interval will cross the calendar boundaries of 2022,” the two generals said.
Possible objectives of the russian offensive are to reach the administrative border of Donetsk Region, advance in the Zaporizhzhya area, conduct military operations from the territory of Belarus and make a repeat attempt to capture the capital.
Western and Ukrainian intelligence services believe that the Kremlin has not abandoned the plans it had at the beginning of a full-scale invasion: the overthrow of the power and capture of Ukraine.