(Read full article on rferl.org)

Russia’s Defense Ministry has indicated that it has scaled back its goals in Ukraine, announcing on March 25 that the first phase of its military operation was complete and it would now focus on two eastern regions claimed by Russia-backed separatists.

“The main objectives of the first stage of the operation have generally been accomplished,” said Sergei Rudskoi, the deputy chief of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff.

“The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which…makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of the Donbas.”

Rudskoi provided the assessment in comments to reporters in Moscow as the war entered its second month.

He claimed that the initial goal of what Moscow calls a “military operation in Ukraine” was to take over Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, commonly known as the Donbas, parts of which came under Russia-backed separatists’ control after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.