Vladmir Putin could wage war against Ukraine for another two years to reach his aim, one of his cronies has warned.
The head of the Wagner private army, which is fighting for the Kremlin against Ukraine, said it may take two years for Russia to control the two areas of eastern Ukraine, which is their ultimate war goal.
Billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin is one of Putin's most trusted allies and said that for Russia to win the war, they needed to fully control the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Prigozhin said in a rare interview: “As far as I understand, we need to finish with Donetsk and Luhansk republics. And in principle this is satisfactory for everybody…”
This would take “at least another year and a half, or two”, he said, in an admission that Russia is being held up by fierce Ukrainian resistance.
These are the regions Russia claimed as their own last year, despite not being recognised by Ukrainian or international law. The move was widely condemned as a precursor to the violation of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty.
Once the territories are officially annexe, Putin and his cronies would likely declare Ukrainian attacks on those areas to be assaults on Russia itself.
“If we have to go as far as the Dnieper [River], then it will take three years,” he said.
But if Putin orders to start World War Three and send his tanks across Europe, he said, then it would take many more years and Russia would need to go on a total war footing.
“If we have to reach the English Channel then I have my ideal plan,” he said. “But in this plan we have to [go on a full war footing] like we did from 1941 to 1945 [in World War Two]. “No [vacations to] Turkey, no France, no relaxation,” he said.
“Everyone working hard, properly.
“Then we can ask the question - where is the English Channel?”
Leading propagandist and war fanatic Margarita Simonyan, said all of Ukraine should be forced inside Russia.
“Ukraine has a beautiful, brilliant, bright, hopeful and normal future as part of the Russian Federation,” she said.
Russian missiles hit power generating facilities in Kharkiv on Friday in an attack that injured eight people.
Reports today also suggest that three Russian S-300 missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday night, according to regional governor Oleh Sinehubov.
“One infrastructure facility was damaged. Information about the victims and the scale of the destruction is being clarified,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
However, Ukraine’s forces are holding defence along the frontline in Donetsk, including of the besieged town of Bakhmut.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, wrote on Telegram: "Fierce fighting continues in the area of Vuhledar and Maryinka. We reliably hold the defence. In some areas of the front we have managed to regain previously lost positions and gained a foothold."
