Saturday, March 26, 2022

Was I Right, Or ...

A few days ago, I blogged my view of what's going on in Ukraine as follows:

  1. The objective of the Russian invasion is to secure the "separatist areas" in the Donbas region, aka the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and a land corridor along the Sea of Azov to connect the DPR/LPR to Crimea.
  2. All other Russian operations, including the supposed attempt to take Kyiv, are feints intended to "fix" Ukrainian forces in the west so that they can't interfere with (1).
  3. When and if (1) is accomplished, Putin will declare victory, pull his forces in western Ukraine out, and unilaterally assert a new border with Ukraine incorporating Russian annexation of those LPR/DPR/land corridor takings.
As of yesterday, per Axios:

Top Russian military officials said Friday the operation in Ukraine was entering a new phase focused on the "complete liberation" of the eastern Donbas region, claiming Russia's assault on cities like Kyiv was part of a strategy to distract Ukrainian forces.

Does that mean I was right?

Well, maybe.

The three possibilities, as I see it, are:

  1. Yes, I was right. The DPR/LPR/land corridor objectives are the real ones, everything else was just a feint; or
  2. I was wrong, but the Kyiv attack, etc. have gone so badly that the Russians are going sour grapes -- pretending those other things were just feints and lowering their expectations; or
  3. This statement is the feint, and they're about to go all-out to e.g. take Kyiv.
Naturally, I think that (1) is the case. But as always, I could be wrong.

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