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Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking “regime change” and will likely go all the way and invade the rest of Ukraine, according to a former director for Russia at the National Security Council.
″I think given the size of the force, the rhetoric we’ve heard about Ukraine overall and its statehood, I think you’re going to see him [Putin] go all the way,” Jeffrey Edmonds told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
Putin ordered troops into two pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine on Monday, after announcing he would formally recognize the independence of the separatist areas.
In a swift response to the incursion, the U.S. and U.K. on Tuesday announced fresh sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions, individuals and sovereign debt. President Joe Biden called Russia’s actions constitute the beginning of “an invasion” of Ukraine, threatening more U.S. sanctions could come.
Putin will likely go “all the way to the capital,” Edmonds said, referring to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
“What you’re seeing right now is a lot of false flag operations. These claims… [that] the people on the East are having to fight back this onslaught of Ukrainian offensives, which just isn’t true,” Edmonds added.
Russia’s state-controlled media previously claimed that Ukrainian government forces had launched shelling strikes against Moscow-backed rebels in the East.
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