Budanov: Russia sees itself as an empire and will not stop trying to achieve the absorption of Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
The head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said that Russia sees itself as an empire and will not stop trying to absorb Ukraine. According to him, Russia needs a pause to recuperate and destabilize the situation in Ukraine.
Russia sees itself as an empire, so it will not stop and will try to do everything to achieve the absorption of Ukraine by military, political, internal and social methods. This was stated by the Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov during a discussion on the occasion of the YES special meeting "Three Years - Time to Win", an UNN correspondent reports.
Have their strategic objectives changed? No, they haven't. In my opinion, this task will never change. Russia does not see itself as a federation. It sees itself as an empire. In their understanding, an empire requires at least three states to exist. These are Russia, Belarus, and it is partially, mostly, there. Ukraine is missing. Without it, the existence of the Russian empire is impossible. Therefore, it will not stop and will try to do everything to achieve the absorption of Ukraine by military, political, non-political, and internal social methods
The head of the GRU said that Russians need territory, population, and factories.
"Without us, the empire cannot take place. Therefore, their strategic goal is unchanged. Through military means, Russia realizes that it is unrealistic to achieve its strategic goal quickly. I will not say some incomprehensible things about how Russia fails and how everything is bad. This is not true. They are moving forward. This movement is not significant and not sufficient to achieve a quick strategic goal, so they need a pause. They need to regain their strength, work on their mistakes, try to destabilize the situation here in the middle to the end, and then they will have a new window of opportunity to achieve their strategic goal," Budanov explained.
Addendum
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not want the war to end, as it is a tool for him to control the Russians.
U.S. President Donald Trump believes that Putin wants to end the fighting.
On February 24, Donald Trump refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator.