For those following Putin's comments--this Ukrainian writer sums up Putin's long term moves inside the Ukraine and it does not have anything to do with mistreated ethnic Russians or "New Russia".
But we all know too well that Putin needs the “LNR” and “DNR” only as a springboard for further destabilization of the situation and exclusion of the entire south and east from Ukraine. The Kremlin doesn’t need the heaps of Donbas–it needs the scientific and industrial potential of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, as well as the strategic territory in the south represented by Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv Oblasts (in terms of support of Crimean livelihood and the connection to Transnistria, and taking control of the entire Ukrainian coast of the Azov and the Black Sea). This is a minimal program. Where the Moscow’s potentate [ambition] brings him next–is another question..
The question raised---"where does it bring Putin next" is valid and should be kept in the back of one's mind when Putin talks about the Ukraine.
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