Ukraine's Presidential Office reveals Russia's deadline for capturing Donetsk region
Photo: Pavlo Palisa, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office (Getty Images)
Russia plans to capture the entire Donetsk region by the end of March. The enemy’s plans to seize territory also extend to other regions, stated Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Pavlo Palisa, in an interview with We Are Ukraine.
Read also: Russia won't reach Donetsk's borders until 2027 at current pace – ISW
"Its (Russia’s - ed.) plans are obvious. Its goal is to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk region by the end of March or the beginning of April," Palisa said.
He also noted that the Russian army aims to advance as far as possible in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. At the same time, the enemy continues its attempts to create buffer zones along the borders in Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
"If successful, by the end of the year, the enemy will try to develop an offensive to capture or create conditions for the capture of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and eventually Odesa," Palisa said.
He emphasized that he does not see the possibility of Russia implementing such plans in the next six months.
Russia’s demands in negotiations
As of now, Russian forces in their attempts to capture the Donetsk region are stuck near Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian soldiers are successfully defending.
Therefore, Moscow is trying to achieve its goals through peace negotiations with Ukraine mediated by the United States.
Russia wants Ukraine to hand over full control of the Donetsk region to it to end the war. The Ukrainian authorities reject such demands and emphasize that peace negotiations should be based on the current front line.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted, he does not believe the war will end even if Ukraine agrees to withdraw from the Donetsk region.
