Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia’s political leadership has already postponed the deadlines it set for the capture of the Donetsk region 15 times, and if the war continues, Russia will have to postpone its plans once again.
According to Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this during a video address on Telegram.
“One fact alone suffices: since the start of the full-scale war, the Russian army has been given 15 different deadlines for capturing our Donetsk region. Russia’s political leadership is constantly obsessed with the Donbas. They’ve had this delusion 15 times already—as if they were going to completely capture the Donbas. In 2022, the deadlines were set for March 31, then May 9, then June 1, then September 15, and finally December 31. In 2023, Putin set two more deadlines for seizing the Donbas: by March 1, and then, when that failed again, they were pushed back to December 31. The twenty-fourth year saw these same two deadlines again. In the twenty-fifth year, when the Russians tried to convince President Trump that Ukraine would supposedly collapse, there were already three deadlines—the final dates for the capture of Donetsk Oblast, namely: by September 1, by December 1, and by December 25. And this year, the Russians have once again postponed the date for the capture of the Donetsk region. At first, they set a deadline of March 31 of this year, then September 1, and now the deadline is December 31,” he noted.
