WITH BATED BREATH

Amid confusion in the combat zone and a raging propaganda war, a section of Russians is protesting the military action. Many others, however, seem to have closed their eyes and believed Putin’s words that their country will come out of the current difficulties “renewed”

- VLADIMIR ROZHDESTVENSKI

Everyone wants to know what will happen next in Ukraine, but no one has an answer. The Russian leadership has been vague about the operation, and it remains unclear what its territorial and time-related boundaries are.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24, on the first day of hostilities in Ukraine: “The goal of the operation is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years, and for this we will strive to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to justice those who committed [crimes] against civilians, including the citizens of the Russian Federation.” Since then, the wording has not changed.

Presumably, Moscow wants the military to take control of Ukraine from the region of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics to the Dnieper. But, currently, the offensive is underway in western Dnieper. Perhaps these strikes are only to significantly increase the damage to the Ukrainian army and nothing more. But these are just guesses.

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on March 7 that Russia was ready to stop the military operation at any time, provided Ukraine recognises the independence of the Crimean peninsula and the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, and also amends the constitution, refusing to join any bloc (meaning primarily NATO).