Ukraine President ‘Secretly Plans’ To Hit Russia, Leaked US Documents Show (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BERLIN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has privately suggested hitting targets inside Russia despite publicly saying his country’s only military objective is to reclaim territory taken by Moscow, according to U.S. intelligence documents.
The leaked top-secret material, published over the weekend, reveals that Zelensky proposed occupying Russian towns, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to neighboring Hungary, and using long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia’s borders.
Zelensky suggested in a January meeting that Ukraine “conduct strikes in Russia” and moves ground troops into enemy territory to “occupy unspecified Russian border cities,” according to one document labeled “top secret.”
The goal would be “to give Kyiv leverage in talks with Moscow,” the document says.
In separate talks in late February with General Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander, Zelensky “expressed concern” that “Ukraine does not have long-range missiles capable of reaching Russian troop deployments in Russia nor anything with which to attack them.”
Zelensky then “suggested that Ukraine attack unspecified deployment locations in Rostov,” a region in western Russia, using drones instead, according to another classified document cited by The Washington Post newspaper.
Blasts caused by unmanned aerial vehicles have become a regular occurrence in Russia, including in Rostov, where a drone crashed into an oil refinery this month.
MORE ATTACKS
Two drone attacks in December on Russia’s Engels air base in Saratov, more than 592 kilometers (370 miles) from the Ukrainian border, showed “that we have the ability to reach many kilometers farther than they could expect,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in an interview earlier this year.
Russia this month accused Ukraine of staging a drone attack intended to kill President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Videos circulating on social media show two drones streaking toward the Kremlin at about 2:30 a.m. local time.
Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, forcefully denied the allegation.
Separately in mid-February, Zelensky told Deputy Prime Minister Yuliya Svrydenko that Ukraine should “blow up” the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline that provides oil to Hungary.
“Zelenskyy highlighted that … Ukraine should just blow up the pipeline and destroy likely Hungarian [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán industry, which is based heavily on Russian oil,” the document says.
It was unclear whether Zelensky was “expressing rage toward Hungary and therefore could be making hyperbolic, meaningless threats,” defense officials said.
KREMLIN-FRIENDLY
Though Hungary is part of the NATO military alliance, Kyiv and several of its allies view him as Europe’s most Kremlin-friendly leader.
Documents revealing Zelensky’s deliberations behind closed doors are part of several materials that a U.S. Air National Guard member has been accused of sharing with friends in the online Discord chat group.
Jack Teixeira, 21, was detained last month after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traced back to him a collection of classified material.
Authorities say, Teixeira, who worked at a military base in Massachusetts’s Cape Cod, misused his top secret clearance to share U.S. intelligence assessments and other sensitive information with others.
However, Zelensky on Sunday tried to play down suggestions he would use Western weapons and expertise to target Russia. There are Western fears that such an escalation could lead to a broader confrontation between Russia and the United States, both nuclear powers.
However Ukraine has no plans to hit targets in Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Germany, where Kyiv secured a big new defense aid package. “We are not attacking Russian territory,” he said after talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We are preparing a counterattack to de-occupy the illegitimately conquered territories,” Zelensky added about a planned counter-offensive.
Scholz vowed to back Ukraine “for as long as it is necessary,” promising 2.7 billion euros ($2.9 billion) worth of weapons. This includes advanced German Leopard tanks and more anti-aircraft systems to defend Ukraine from almost daily deadly Russian missile and drone attacks.
PLANE ESCORTED
President Zelensky reportedly flew to Germany from Italy overnight, his plane escorted by two German Air Force fighter jets.
Later on Sunday, President Zelensky traveled to the western city of Aachen to receive the prestigious Charlemagne Prize awarded this year to him and the Ukrainian people. The honor is given for efforts to foster European unity.
“Ukraine incarnates everything the European idea is living for the courage of convictions, the fight for values and freedom, the commitment to peace and unity,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the award ceremony.
Previous winners include Winston Churchill, Pope Francis, and Bill Clinton.
He later traveled to Paris, France, to the Élysée Palace for a working dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron late Sunday.
His latest visit to Europe came as inside Ukraine, the air force claimed it destroyed 25 drones and three cruise missiles launched by Russia in another massive overnight attack.
However, six people were killed and another 16 injured in the past 24 hours in Russian shelling of Ukraine-held areas in the eastern Donetsk region, local officials said. Elsewhere one person was killed in Sunday’s Russian artillery attack on the southern Kherson region.
RUSSIA STRUGGLING
Russia was also struggling, however, in regions it seized from Ukraine with mobile internet temporarily suspended in the eastern Luhansk area due to increased shelling by Ukrainian troops, Moscow-installed officials said. It also came as Ukraine claimed to recapture territories around the eastern city of Bakhmut, despite Russian officials playing down the alleged victories.
With clashes ongoing, Zelensky also visited Pope Francis on Saturday, who told him he was constantly praying for peace. Francis also stressed the urgent need to help “the most fragile people, innocent victims” of the Russian invasion.
In Rome, the Ukrainian leader also met Italian President Sergio President Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who assured him of her nation’s support.
However, with documents showing Zelensky may be less restrained towards Russia with Western weapons than previously thought, the pressure was mounting to find a peace plan.
Britain did not indicate it would think twice about delivering Storm Shadow missiles with a range of over 250 kilometers (155 miles) each, which could hit targets deeper inside Russia.
By contrast, the U.S.-supplied Himars missiles used by Ukraine reportedly range around 80 km (50 miles), and Washington has so far officially refused to provide weapons that could reach further.
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