The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), a London-based think tank with close links to the British Army, has published captured documents which allegedly are signed off by Vladimir Putin.
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The documents reveal the intentions on the side of Russia to capture Ukraine in just 10 days, The Telegraph reports.
Underestimating Ukraine’s defence
The revelations by RUSI, if true, suggest that Russia’s President Vladimir Putinand his top military strategists heavily underestimated Ukraine’s defence when plotting to take the country in less than two weeks.
Surprisingly the documents also reveal interesting details about Vladimir Putin’s chain of command, as the documents shed light on great secrecy about the pre-invasion course of actions.
Apparently, not many officials were aware of the full scale of the plans. The report indicates that Russian military heads of branches were informed just days leading to the invasion, while tactical unit leaders received orders just hours before.
The Russian Army was instructed not to target vital Ukrainian infrastructure like power stations, including nuclear ones.
They were to be used as a shelter for the Russian troops and to grasp control of Ukraine’s energy system but also to blackmail Europe with potential radiation pollution leaks.
Read more: Vladimir Putin's reign may continue despite losses in Ukraine, researcher claims
Cleaning house
Allegedly, Putin’s regime took for granted that top Ukrainian leaders would try to flee or be captured in the early days of the conflict, and Russia’s secret security service (FSB) was tasked to kill them, Sky News reports.
The documents reveal a Russian four-point system of classifying Ukrainian leadership.
It includes the group considered to be opponents and need to be dealt with, the group who require intimidation, those considered neutral and need encouragement to collaborate, and last but not least the group of hearty collaborators.
The FSB was also tasked to take hostage regional leaders, while the civilian population would be taken through filtration camps and be registered in a census through door-to-door visits.
In the long run, the documents reveal the intention of shipping teachers and other educators from Russia to begin the ‘re-education of Ukrainians’.
Sources used:
-TheTelegraph: ‘Captured documents reveal Russia's plan to annex Ukraine in ten days and kill its leaders’
-SkyNews: ‘Ukraine war: Captured Russian documents reveal Moscow's 10-day plan to take over the country and kill its leaders’
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