Dictator's secret plans. Putin wanted to seize most of Ukraine, "take" Kyiv for three days and kill Zelensky, "if necessary" - WP

They arrived with high -secret intelligence data made on the basis of satellite images obtained, intercepted conversations and human sources that showed Putin's plans for a full -scale invasion of Ukraine. Video of the day in the summer of 2021 National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan focused on the growth of intelligence related to Russia and Ukraine.

According to officials of the United States, American intelligence has penetrated numerous points of political leadership of Russia, the spyware and the military: from senior leadership to advanced leadership. The publication writes that much more radical than in 2014, Putin's military plans provided for the capture of most Ukraine.

According to The Washington Post, the dictator had an extremely cheeky plan that could pose a direct threat to NATO's eastern flank or even destroy Europe's security architecture after World War II. "We evaluate that they (RF - RF) plan to carry out a significant strategic attack on Ukraine from several directions at the same time," said Biden Mill Millie Headquarters Chairman in October 2021.

According to US intelligence, the Russian Federation had to step down from the north - on both sides of Kiev. Some forces planned to move east from the capital through Chernihiv, while others - to surround Kyiv from the west, moving south of Belarus through the natural gap between the Chernobyl and surrounding swamps. The Russians decided to step in the winter so that the solid land made the terrain easily passing for tanks. The invaders planned to seize Kyiv in three to four days.

In particular, the Russian special forces had to go to the capital and remove President Vladimir Zelensky, killing him "if necessary. " After that, the aggressor planned to install a puppet government, supportive of the Kremlin. The newspaper writes that separately Russian troops had to leave the east and pass through the center of Ukraine to the Dnieper River, while troops from the Crimea would seize the southeastern coast. According to the invaders, all this had to take several weeks.

After that, the Russian troops were supposed to regroup, re-arry and move to the west, to the north-south line, which extended from Moldova to Western Belarus, leaving the remnants of the Ukrainian state in the West-the territory, which, according to Putin, was inhabited by "irreparable neo-Nazi Russophobia". A number of officials in the White House were difficult to imagine the scale of the dictator ambitions.

"It seemed not to be what a smart country would decide," one participant in the White House later said. The Washington Post writes that at the end of the summer, collecting intelligence data from the border and from Moscow, analysts who dedicated their career to Putin's research, were increasingly convinced that the dictator saw that the "window is closed".

"The Ukrainians have rebuilt twice, demanding a democratic future, free from corruption and Moscow's intervention, during the Orange Revolution of 2004-2005 and protests on the Maidan 2013–2014, which preceded the annexation of Crimea by Russia," the article reads. According to them, Putin believed that Baiden's administration was punished by a humiliating withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and wanted to avoid new wars.

Putin believed that the US and Europe were still fighting the pandemic, Germany Angela Merkel left her post and transferred power to an unverified successor, French President Emmanuel Macron faced the new elections, and the United Kingdom suffered from the economic downturn after Brexit. “The large parts of the continent depended on Russian oil and natural gas, which Putin believed, he could use as a wedge to split the Western Alliance.