JAKARTA - Russian invading forces, now slowly advancing towards the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, may try to divide the country into two parts, similar to North and South Korea, a Ukrainian official said on Sunday.
Ukraine's head of Defense Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said in a post on social media the strategy could result from President Vladimir Putin's failure to "take control of Kyiv and wipe out the Ukrainian government."
"There is reason to believe he may be trying to impose a dividing line, between occupied and unoccupied territories in our country. In fact, it will be an attempt to establish South and North Korea in Ukraine," Budanov said, as quoted by Daily Sabah, March 28.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, sealing the division of their peninsula with an impenetrable border.
Their border is an area of four kilometers (2.4 miles) x 248 kilometers known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Russia signaled earlier this week it may drop its war objective to focus on eastern Ukraine, after failing to break the country's resistance in a month of fighting and attacks on civilians.
"The invaders will try to establish several quasi-states as an alternative to an independent Ukraine," Budanov said.
"We can see attempts to form 'parallel' local governments in occupied areas and force people to give up Ukrainian currency," he added.
Budanov said Russia might try to use the status of the occupied territories as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
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Moscow's month-long offensive against its pro-democracy neighbor has largely stalled without major progress recently, with Ukrainian forces able to counterattack in some places.
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