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This Saturday, February 11, the Russian Ministry of Defense assured that its troops carried out massive attacks against “critical” infrastructure in Ukraine, while their attacks are also increasing, especially in the Donbass, in the east of the country. Meanwhile, the Wagner mercenary group, which is backing Kremlin troops in the invasion, said it would take two years to fulfill Moscow’s occupationist goals in eastern Ukraine.
Russia accelerates its attacks ahead of the first year of the war against Ukraine that President Vladimir Putin ordered on February 24, 2022.
The invading troops continue their offensive along the front of the strategic Donbass region, in eastern Ukrainian territory, according to the General Staff of the Volodimir Zelensky Army.
In the Donetsk province, the Kremlin military seeks to “break through the enemy lines” on the outskirts of the regional capital, especially in the city of Avdiivka, defended since 2014 by Ukrainian soldiers.
Likewise, soldiers from Moscow are advancing towards the crossroads of the disputed Bakhmut, in the same oblast, after the capture of Soledar and other adjacent towns in the last month.
But civilian infrastructure is still in the crosshairs of Russian attackers, leaving more than 10 million people short of water, power and heating amid freezing temperatures.
This Saturday, February 11, the Russian Ministry of Defense assured that a day before its men carried out “a massive attack against energy facilities of critical importance in the military-industrial complex.”
An offensive with which, according to Moscow, it also managed to block the transit of foreign arms and ammunition to kyiv by rail. However, that information has not been confirmed by the Ukrainian authorities.
Wagner says it would take two years to meet Russia’s targets in eastern Ukraine
In a rare interview with a Russian military correspondent, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said it could take Moscow two years to control all of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east of the invaded nation.
A key objective of the Kremlin since the so-called Donbass war in 2014, and renewed in the conflict it launched nearly a year ago.
“We must close the Donetsk and Lugansk republics (…) That could take between one and a half to two years,” Prigozhin said.
His statements come after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed these two regions in disputed referendums last September; as well as Zaporizhia and Kherson, in the south of the country. Actions denounced by kyiv and the West as “illegal”, after the coercion of the inhabitants and in defiance of international law.
To take the central regions of the country by force, Prigozhin estimates more time.
“If we have to reach the Dnipro, it will take about three years,” added the leader of the paramilitary group, referring to a larger area that would reach the vast river of the same name, which divides Ukraine from north to south.
Although these are not official statements by the Russian Army, Wagner’s role in the conflict is taking on more and more prominence, going from supporting the Moscow military to claiming “victories” such as the capture of Soledar.
Kiev is maintaining its defenses and alert for a major Russian offensive on the first anniversary of the conflict, the first in Europe since the Balkan war in the 1990s.
With Reuters and EFE
