Russian general names year by which Moscow hopes to defeat Ukraine
A member of the Russian State Duma's Defence Committee, Viktor Sobolev, has said Russia needs to achieve its war goals in Ukraine by 2030, citing an expected NATO attack. He repeats familiar propaganda framing Russia as the future victim of aggression.
Viktor Sobolev, a member of the Russian State Duma's Defence Committee and former commander of the 58th Army, told the outlet "gazeta.ru" that Russia needs to achieve its objectives in Ukraine by 2030. Should this timeline hold, the invasion launched on 24 February 2022 — which the Kremlin initially planned as a swift campaign — would end up lasting longer than the Second World War.
Sobolev's justification follows familiar Russian propaganda narratives, claiming that by 2030 NATO member states will be ready to attack Russia. He named several countries — Poland, Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Norway, Finland and Sweden — alleging they want to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia. He added that an information campaign is underway to prepare these countries' populations for war, while also claiming genuine military preparations are taking place.
Reference to a fabricated invasion date
The article also cites another Russian official's remarks to the TASS agency, describing documents Russian soldiers allegedly found early in the war at an abandoned headquarters of a Ukrainian territorial defence brigade. These documents supposedly specified a date for a Ukrainian attack on Russia — 8 March 2022 — with the claim that Russia pre-empted it by two weeks. No explanation was given for why Russia had already begun massing troops near Ukraine's border since spring 2021, moving equipment from Siberia and the Far East and warships from the Pacific.
During the war, Putin has cited various different justifications for the invasion, ranging from preventing NATO bases in Ukraine to defending Russian-language rights and opposing Ukraine's aspirations to join the European Union. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has also previously claimed he could point to where an attack on Belarus was being prepared, which he said was thwarted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine — a claim that became an object of online ridicule.
