What is the ultimate goal of the “Special Military Operation” of Moscow, according to a former Russian commander, now a member of the State Duma

The “creation of the state union” between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus is the ultimate goal of the “special military operation” -as Moscow calls its invasion in Ukraine -, Russian deputy Viktor Sobolev, a member of the Defense Commission in Duma of State (Lower Chamber), writes the Russian independent publication The Moscow Times.

According to The Moscow Times, quoted by Agerpres, Sobolev made this statement in an interview with the RTVI television channel, where he said that it is “the restoration of the Russian world” Russkii Mir “within its natural borders.”

Otherwise, “we may not be able to keep our country,” he said, adding that to solve this problem, Russia needs a “strong army, well trained and well armed.”

“We are all Russian”

“We are all Russian. Kiev is the mother of Russian cities, Vladimir, the Great Kiev's Great, was Russian, Iuri Dolgoruki (Cneaz in Kievian Russia), the wise Jeroslav, the Great Cneaz of Novgorod and Kiev, were also Russian. Duma, evoking historical personalities from the X-XII centuries.

• The 75-year-old Viktor Sobolev is a former lieutenant of the Russian army that was chosen in the State Duma, the lower room of the Russian Legislature, on the Lists of the Communist Party.

According to some Western historians, Russia would come from the Duchy of Moscow and not from Kievian Russia, very often invoked by the Moscow political class after the large -scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.

Which goal announces a little when the invasion triggered

Announcing the triggering of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that its purpose is “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the neighboring country, as well as protecting the inhabitants of Donbas, a mining area in eastern Ukraine, comprising the regions Donetk and Lugansk.

In less than a year of military actions, more civilians were killed in Donets and Lugansk than in the seven years before the invasion, notes The Moscow Times, citing a report by Daria Morozova, the human rights commissioner of the Donetk pro-Russian regime, which indicates the figure of 1,089 civilians.

Data centralized by the UN until the end of 2024 showed that the number of civilian victims in Ukraine amounted to 12,500, including 650 children.

In addition to the mentioned goals, Putin had declared, on February 24, 2022, that Russia would not allow the “NATO military car” to approach its borders, but the war against Ukraine determined neighboring states, once unaltered, to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

Thus, Sweden and Finland shortly submitted their applications for accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. Finland became a member of the military block on April 4, 2023, having a common terrestrial border with Russia of almost 1,300 km. Sweden joined NATO on April 7, 2024 and announced a consolidated military presence on the island of Gotland, 330 km from Russian Exclava Kaliningrad.

Evgheni Prigojin, the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, who died in August 2023 in a plane accident, had also evoked the failure of the war objectives. According to him, instead of “demilitating” Ukraine, Russia caused a “pumping” of weapons in the Kiev army. “If they had, say, 500 tanks before the beginning of the” special operation “, now they have 5,000. If then they had 20,000 well -trained fighters, now they have 400,000. How did we demilitized it? On the contrary, I militarized it in a hellish way, “he said shortly before rebel against the leadership of the Russian army, in June 2023.

“Russia can fight another five, even 20 years”

On May 16, 2025, after a three -year break, direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were resumed. The Economist wrote that Moscow has asked for control over four Ukrainian regions-Donetk, Lugansk, Herson and Zaporojie-which he annexed in September 2022, but has not yet conquered.

At the same time, the head of the Russian delegation to negotiations Vadim Medinski threatened to Ukrainians that Russia can fight for another 20 years.

Putin recently insists that the war will end only once its “deep causes” will be eliminated. Before the invasion, he had declared in 2021 that Ukraine was “transformed into an antithesis of Russia”, which we will “never reconcile”.

The life of five Russian soldiers for each KM2

According to The Moscow Times based on verifiable data, in three years of war, each of the belligerent parties would have lost at least 400,000 soldiers, without taking into account the losses among foreign mercenaries.

During this period, Russia occupied over 70,000 km2 of territory in Ukraine. Thus, for each square kilometer captured from February 24, 2022, Russia would have paid for five soldiers, according to the cited publication.

Follow the latest evolutions of the War in Ukraine LiveText on HotNews.ro