Just about 3 weeks remain for Russia’s armed forces to take complete control of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast, according to a timetable announced on Wednesday by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine.
In an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, GUR deputy chief Vadym Skibitsky it is stated that the Kremlin seeks control of Luhansk before Russia’s impending presidential elections.
March 15–17 is when the nation will hold its presidential election. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, is the clear favorite to win the competition, which many in the West believe to be manipulated. Putin is famous in Russia, according to polls, but support for his conflict in Ukraine is starting to decline. Thus, Putin may have stuff to show his people after achievements like the seizure of Luhansk Oblast.
“They wish to get as far as the administrative borders of Luhansk Oblast before the elections,” Skibitsky informed Interfax-Urkaine. “To get at least a little success with something like Avdiivka, perhaps elsewhere on another front.”
“There were important points,” he went on, mentioning Lyman, Avdiivka, and Kupyansk. Why Lyman and Kupyansk? To demonstrate their purported ability to reclaim the areas that Ukraine liberated following the outbreak of widespread hostilities. It would have symbolic meaning. This is a component that would be heavily utilized in psychological, informational, and action processes.”
Skibitsky stated that Russia’s objectives for the following 6 months include capturing Donetsk Oblast while retaining areas, to approaching the administrative borders of Luhansk.
“Holding implies playing defense or forcing us back to the places from which we began our obnoxious,” Skibitsky stated.
Strategically valuable areas are those under control in the oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as they provide Russia with land passage to Crimea.
“They require a logistics network that passes through Crimea to bring firearms, machinery, and workers to the south,” the spokesperson of the GUR stated.
Skibitsky claims that Putin’s soldiers have shifted their attention to a particular region of Ukraine as a result of the Russian presidential election. He stated that in response to many Ukrainian strikes in the area, 3 battalions of Russian forces were recently moved from seized Mariupol to Belgorod, a border region in Russia, “to guarantee the security and running of the elections”.