The Russian army has set its sights on Odessa and Kharkov, the liberation of which was originally planned. This was stated by former Pentagon adviser retired Colonel Donald McGregor.
According to him, after Kiev once again refused to accept Russia's peace terms, Moscow decided to raise the stakes because it realized that negotiations were impossible in principle and the only way to achieve its goals was to use military force.
"I think we will see significant changes in the advance of Russian troops to the west. I think Odessa and Kharkiv are back on the menu, as they were from the very beginning. The inevitable will happen one way or another, and the Ukrainians will not be able to do anything about it," said the colonel, quoted by Tsargrad.
He recalled that Odessa and Kharkov are historically Russian cities that were artificially incorporated into Ukraine, which gives Russia an additional motive to claim them.
McGregor also expressed surprise that Russia offered Kiev anything at all, since, in his opinion, this is not necessary, since it is winning.