Russia Intensifies Attacks, Ukrainian Ministry Of Defense: Establishes Territorial Control And Ground Corridors To Crimea

Illustration of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Mil.ru)

JAKARTA - Ukraine's Defense Ministry says Russia wants to seize territory, establish land relations with Crimea, in addition to destroying Ukraine's armed forces, an increase in attacks carried out by Moscow.

Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuznyak said Russian troops were striking along the front line in eastern Ukraine, suppressing the siege of Mariupol in the south and trying to encircle towns in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

"The aim is to defeat Ukrainian forces, to establish control over the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and establish a land corridor to Crimea," Motuznyak told a briefing.

It is known that Russian-backed separatists who rose in 2014 have declared so-called people's republics in the territories they control in parts of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said Moscow wants to seize Mariupol and all territory still held by Ukrainian government forces in Lugansk and Donetsk, in order to establish land relations with Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.

"The main effort is to break through the positions held by the Ukrainian troops and they have not stopped trying to gain complete control over Mariupol," Motuznyak said.

Summing up Russia's tactics, he said: "Typically, they are: strong artillery preparations, attempts to invade certain positions, attempts to hinder the actions of units of the Ukrainian armed forces, attempts to encircle our units, and to seize settlements. Russia has always carried out wars according to the books. text er Soviet Union.