Russia signals less ambitious goals in Ukraine war

Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian general, suggested a considerably reduced “main goal” of controlling the Donbas region

Russia signalled on Friday it may dial back its war aims to focus on eastern Ukraine after failing to break the nation’s resistance in a month of fighting and attacks on civilians, including up to 300 feared killed in the bombing of a theatre being used as a bunker.

The possible shift came as President Joe Biden visited elite United States troops serving with NATO just across the border in Poland and France’s Emmanuel Macron proposed an internationally backed evacuation of civilians trapped in the bombarded city of Mariupol.

Back in February, President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion to destroy Ukraine’s military and topple pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bringing the country under Russia’s sway.

However, Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian general, suggested a considerably reduced “main goal” of controlling the Donbas, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies. His surprise statement came as a Western official reported that a seventh Russian general had died in Ukraine and claimed that a colonel had been “deliberately” killed by his own demoralised men.

Visiting Rzeszow, about 80 kilometers from Ukraine, Mr. Biden praised Ukraine’s “incredible” resistance, comparing the conflict to a bigger version of communist China’s 1989 crushing of protests in Tiananmen Square.

Mr. Biden told soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division that the struggle in eastern Europe represents a historic “inflection point.”

“Are democracies going to prevail..., or are autocracies going to prevail? And that’s really what’s at stake,” Mr. Biden said.