London: Russia primarily wants to weaken the Ukrainian army
According to British assessments, the Russian troops have again changed their approach in their war of aggression against Ukraine. “Your campaign is now probably mainly aimed at weakening the Ukrainian military rather than concentrating on seizing significant amounts of territory,” the Ministry of Defense said in London on the anniversary of the start of the war on Friday.
“The Russian leadership is likely to take a long-term approach, assuming that Russia’s population and resource advantages will eventually exhaust Ukraine,” it said, citing intelligence findings.
The Russian strategy of controlling the neighboring country has remained largely constant since 2014. Until 2021, this goal was “subversively” pursued, with Moscow annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and fomenting the undeclared war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass. “On February 24, 2022, Russia switched to a new approach and launched a full-scale invasion in an attempt to take over the entire country and overthrow the government.” By April 2022, Russia then realized that this had and had failed focused on expanding and formalizing its rule over Donbass and southern Ukraine. “It has made slow and extremely costly progress,” it said in London.
The British Ministry of Defense has published daily information on the course of the war since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, citing intelligence information. In doing so, the British government wants to both counter the Russian portrayal and keep allies in line. Moscow accuses London of a disinformation campaign.