Russian elite sees no alternative to continuing war against Ukraine – CCD

Russia's political elite seeks to restore the Soviet Union's influence in Eastern Europe and divide the EU, but sees no way to achieve these goals without continuing the war against Ukraine.

According to Ukrinform, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, stated this on Telegram.

"The goals of the Russian political elite are quite predictable. They do not want to completely turn into a raw-material appendage of China (in my opinion, they already have, though they still do not think so), but Moscow has neither the manpower nor the strength to confront Beijing. Therefore, Russia's political elite looks toward Europe and dreams of restoring the USSR's influence in the eastern part of the continent," he said.

According to Kovalenko, Russia seeks to create leverage over Beijing by strengthening its own position in Europe and is investing resources into dividing the EU. Ukraine is the key obstacle to these plans because it is oriented toward Europe and competes with Russia in many areas.

"That is why the Russian political elite currently sees no alternative to continuing the war, which they will, of course, lose. But Russia is trying with all its might to weaken us, and for more than two decades they have been trying to isolate countries within the EU by corrupting political elites and creating propaganda conditions for the triumph of pro-Russian forces," the CCD head explained.

He also expressed confidence that there are two important aspects in this Russian worldview: every one of these paths leads only to the collapse of the empire, and the only question is the timeframe. In addition, Russia is incapable of winning a confrontation against the EU and Ukraine, just as it cannot avoid complete economic absorption by China.

"The only question is timing," Kovalenko added.

The CCD head concluded that the only solution is ending the war and changing the regime in Russia, but Vladimir Putin places the regime above the state.

As Ukrinform previously reported, self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko did not give any orders to prepare any ground operation against Ukraine.