Russia(Washington Insider Magazine)-Russia annex efforts continue. According to United States Intelligence, Russia is making efforts to begin annexing several parts of Ukraine–as well as setting up Russian banks to make the ruble their official currency, essentially forcing Ukraine residents to become Russian citizens.
Yet, in addition to Putin requiring that Russian passports be issued to Ukrainian residents, Russia has assumed control of all Ukrainian telecommunication systems. Russia annex efforts are currently more aggressive than before, pointing to more aggressive assertions of dominance in the future.
Putin reasons that invading Eastern Ukraine is more of a formality since it is historically Russian territory–referencing the highly-disputed Donbas region of which it’s attempted to regain control since the fall of the USSR.
However, former Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby continues to assert that United States is not fooled by Putin’s current strategy. He continued to state that the U.S. is continually monitoring Russian forces as annex efforts continue.
This monitoring has brought about some unfortunate news, as it seems Russia will continue with aggressive annexation efforts to win land in key areas and cities of Ukraine. The National Security Council is aware and will be continuing to monitor the situation to further support the sovereignty of Ukraine as a nation.
Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk are among the territory that Russia plans to annex next. This didn’t come as a surprise to spokesperson Kirby, as he noted that this strategy was very common to see in the Russian war playbook. We last saw this play out in 2014, just prior to the Kremlin annex of Crimea.
The White House wants Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, to understand that the U.S. is up to speed with its plans and has put together an additional military aid package to assist in helping withstand attacks from the Kremlin. This package will include advanced rocket systems and ammunition.
Russian officials have gathered together to help put in place the new currency and welfare systems and made orders to replace Ukrainian infrastructure with Russian signs, further dropping Ukrainian morale.
Russia has assured the attacks on Ukraine will not cease until they have conquered every inch of the country. Even with foreign aid, it is projected that it will take years for Ukraine to recover from the scale of this unprecedented global dispute.
