Former Deputy Chairman of Ukraine's Security Services: Russia's strategic goal is the systematic destruction of Ukraine
Russian aggression against Ukraine cannot be characterized as a hybrid war, stated ex-Deputy Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Skipalsky. He told the newspaper "Gordon" when commenting on the situation concerning ‘Crimean terrorist actions’ that Russia is attempting to walk away from the Minsk negotiation process. "Russian authorities decided not to wait any longer, thus they tried to charge Ukraine with something and declare their withdrawal from the Minsk process.”
Currently Moscow wants to ascribe the disruption of Minsk and terror in Crimea to Kiev, thus giving themselves a pretext to leave the negotiations. “It’s a real explanation of those events taking place. As for 'Crimean terrorist actions,' I got to tell you, the best officers of the Russian Federation were working on the peninsula,” Skipalsky stressed.
According to him, the Kremlin is focused on the destruction of the State of Ukraine. "Russia’s strategic goal is the systemic destruction of Ukraine both as an international entity and an independent state. Separation of our country into several enclaves is the least result expected by the Kremlin.”
Skipalsky also noted that Russian actions are systemic in all aspects. 80% of Russian aggression is aimed at destruction of areas of economy, politics, international affairs and transport while Ukraine only focuses on military operations.
"If we want to survive in this confrontation, we should change all approaches. And Ukrainian authorities should stop playing a hybrid war. It’s not a hybrid war but a systemic destruction of Ukraine. Military operations are one of its components,” Skipalsky summed up.