Violetta Orlova 06:59, 03/21/22 UNIAN

What has changed is not Putin’s strategy, but Putin’s tactics.

The media reported on Putin’s illness / photo REUTERS

After failing to capture Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin is forced to change tactics in the war with Ukraine and shifts to a strategy of “protecting the main territorial objectives”, looking for appropriate levers to force Bankovaya to agree to a non-aligned position.

This was reported to the WSJ by unnamed senior US officials.

One of the interlocutors of the publication said that, given the data received, the effective defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine prompted Putin to adjust his tactics.

Now the Russian president wants to force Kyiv to accept Russia’s claims to the southern and eastern territories of Ukraine. Thus, Russia wants to create a “land corridor” between the west of the country and the Crimea occupied in 2014, as well as expand control over the Donbass.

At the same time, Putin will continue his military pressure, in particular the shelling of cities, hoping that this will force Zelensky to give up hopes of entering into an alliance with the West and agree to a neutral status and other demands from the Kremlin.

If Putin’s demands are not met, then, US officials expect, the Russian Federation will try to keep all the territory occupied by its regular troops and continue to escalate.

“Based on our military assessments, it looks like Putin is returning to blockade tactics,” another US official said.

According to him, for citizens in besieged cities, this means weeks, and possibly months, of rocket and artillery attacks by the Russian army.

The US doubts that Putin will be able to capture Kyiv with such resistance from Ukrainian society as he is now, unless he muster enough troops.

The publication notes that the interpretation of Putin’s strategy is not the result of an official assessment of the intelligence community, but only the point of view of some officials with access to classified information. They do not guarantee that this strategy will necessarily work.

Former senior State Department official Daniel Fried noted that Putin’s goal to seize Ukraine has not changed, “only his tactics have changed.”