Russian president Vladimir Putin aims to 'split Ukraine in two' similar to the post-war division between North and South Korea, an intelligence chief has warned.
Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence chief for Ukraine, said that as part of Putin's ongoing invasion, he is trying to emulate the divide seen between North and South Korea. He said that Russia was trying to apply what he referred to as the 'Korean scenario', after it had failed to take the capital and depose its government.
“In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," Budanov said. The intelligence chief had also previously predicted Russia's invasion as far back as last November before Putin's 'special military operation' launched on February 24.
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Budanov said he believed that Putin had first wanted to take over the whole of Ukraine, but had since changed his plans after failing to take its capital, Kyiv, and overthrow President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s government.
He said that Moscow had been unable to 'swallow' Ukraine and would face guerrilla warfare should Putin look to split the country. “In addition, the season of a total Ukrainian guerrilla safari will soon begin. Then there will be one relevant scenario left for the Russians, how to survive," he added.
It comes after Putin had recognised the two eastern self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine a short time before the start of the war. Separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, said it could hold a referendum 'in the nearest time' on possibly merging the region into becoming a part of neighbouring Russia.
Kyrylo Budanov added that Vladimir Putin's priorities remain the east and the south of Ukraine. He warned that if he's able to connect that territory, that Putin could try to foist a demarcation line separating that area from the rest of Ukraine.
It comes as the city of Lviv continued to be rocked by explosions throughout Saturday night (March 26), with a fuel storage facility and a factory among the buildings hit by Russian cruise missiles. The city had been largely spared since the invasion began, but the back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that had become a haven for 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns.
