Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said on Sunday, vowing “total” guerrilla warfare to prevent a carve up of the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off the Russian forces, which the Kyiv government said were increasingly targeting fuel and food depots.
The Russian-backed eastern Ukrainian rebel region of Luhansk said on Sunday it may hold a referendum on joining Russia, drawing a warning from Kyiv that any such vote would have no legal basis and trigger a stronger international response. Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia holding a referendum in occupied Ukrainian territory would have no legal basis and would face a strong response from the international community, deepening its global isolation. Russia is trying to split Ukraine
in two to create a Moscow-controlled region after failing to take over the whole country, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence said on Sunday. “In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine,” Kyrylo Budanov said in a statement, adding that Ukraine would soon launch guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territory.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Sunday said the country does not have a strategy to change regime in Russia. His statement comes after US President Joe Biden’s “cannot remain in power” comment for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. “As you know, and as you’ve heard us say, repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else,” Blinken said. The top US diplomat is currently in Israel, his first stop of a middle-east trip, for the Arab-Israeli summit. He met his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid and later said that the two sides are committed in ensuring Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. The talks also focused on Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden, who was in Poland on Saturday, launched a fiery attack on Putin, calling for the Russian leader’s removal for his invasion of Ukraine. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” he said during his speech in Polish capital Warsaw. This wasn’t the only attack he made on Putin. On Saturday, Biden also met several Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Poland to escape the Russian invasion of their country. Later, when Biden was asked what he thought of Putin, the US President said, “He is a butcher”.
Kremlin has not taken Biden’s comments well, saying that insults by the US President “narrow the window of opportunity for normalising dialogue” between the two countries.
Biden’s “cannot remain in power” comment was quickly clarified by the White House, with an official saying the US President meant Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region”. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” the official added. The official further stated that Biden’s line was not present in his prepared remarks wherein the US President said Putin is lying to justify the now two-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
On Sunday, Blinken reiterated the clarification, saying that Biden and the White House “made the point last night that quite simply…Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine, or anywhere else”.
Meanwhile, the next round of face to face talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey on 28-30 March, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said on social media on Sunday. Ukraine described previous talks with Russia, launched after Russia unleashed an invasion last month, as “very difficult”.
The front-line moved back slightly after Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in Kherson, about 80 km to the southeast, the country’s only major city seized by Russian troops. Mykolaiv is a key city on the road to Odessa, Ukraine’s biggest port. Ukraine is mounting small counter-offensive actions as Russia’s military tries to encircle its forces in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Sunday.