"Minimum goal" of the invasion: Kremlin wants to "liberate" entire Donetsk region

Almost 60 percent of the Donetsk region is already controlled by Russia.

"Minimum goal" of the invasion: Kremlin wants to "liberate" entire Donetsk region

Almost 60 percent of the Donetsk region is already controlled by Russia. The Kremlin also wants to "liberate" at least the rest of the region," said Kremlin spokesman Peskov. However, the Russian troops are not making much headway there.

Russia wants to continue the war in Ukraine until the capture of the entire Donetsk region. That is the minimum goal, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He was commenting on the end of the votes in occupied territories in Ukraine, which had been criticized as a breach of international law. So far, Russian troops and separatist groups have controlled around 58 percent of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

In the occupied parts of the Donetsk region, a sham referendum on joining Russia had been held for five days until Tuesday - with allegedly almost 100 percent approval. The votes, which violate international law, also took place in the Luhansk region, which is almost completely controlled by Moscow, and in the occupied parts of the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions. There, too, people allegedly voted for accession to the Russian Federation in internationally unrecognized ballots.

"You know that not the entire territory of the Donetsk People's Republic has been liberated," Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. "Therefore, as a minimum, we must liberate the entire territory of the Donetsk People's Republic." The Russian Ministry of Defense had admitted that progress there was much slower than planned.

After the sham referendums in the occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, the separatist leaders want to apply to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for membership of the Russian Federation this Wednesday. The Kremlin officials from Luhansk and Kherson already made this request in the afternoon. The crew representatives were expected in Moscow. Peskov confirmed that Putin will receive them. But initially there was no appointment. Even before the start of the sham referendums, Putin had emphasized that the areas would be under the protection of the nuclear power after incorporation.

The mock referendums are not recognized worldwide. The reason is that they were held in violation of Ukrainian and international laws and without minimum democratic standards.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Russian sham referendums in the occupied eastern and southern parts of the country and has demanded weapons from the West to liberate the areas. The military needs "tanks, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, long-range artillery and anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems," according to a statement from Kyiv. "As in the case of Ukrainian Crimea, the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions remain sovereign territories of Ukraine."

Ukraine has every right to restore its territorial integrity through military and diplomatic methods. "Ukraine will never agree to any ultimatums from Russia," it said. Moscow's attempts to weaken international support for Ukraine are doomed to failure.