After the Russian occupiers failed to win a quick victory over Ukraine, the Kremlin moves to a new strategy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has changed tactics in the war against Ukraine as fighting has been going on for more than three weeks. Moscow no longer aims to capture the capital and wants to force the Ukrainian authorities to “surrender” the southern and eastern territories, writes the WSJ, citing comments by US officials..

One of the officials called it "

“The new assessment of Putin’s intentions, shared by officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden, is to force Kyiv to accept Russia’s claims to the southern and eastern territories of Ukraine.. Russia wants to provide a "

It is noted that the occupiers will also continue shelling Ukrainian cities, with the expectation that this will force President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to the demands of the Kremlin, in particular, to accept the neutral status of Ukraine..

According to US officials, if Putin's demands for territory and neutrality are rejected, the Russian president is expected to try to keep all the territories his troops have occupied and continue the war..

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According to him, this means weeks, and possibly even months, of rocket and artillery attacks by the Russian army..

In addition, US officials believe that Putin could expand his military goals if the Russian military begins to do better..

The status of the capital remains an open question. However, given the strong resistance of Ukraine, it is not clear whether the Russian army will be able to muster enough forces to tightly surround Kyiv and capture the capital, the newspaper writes..

It is noted that this interpretation of Putin's strategy is not an official assessment of the intelligence community, but only the point of view of some US officials with access to classified information..

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Earlier, the US Army General predicted two scenarios for a war between Ukraine and Russia. The most probable, according to the former commander of NATO Joint Forces in Europe, Wesley Clark, are two scenarios - a quick defeat of Ukraine or a strike against NATO.