Andrey Mordvichev -- Russia general says Ukraine just ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe: ‘Won’t stop'
"Ukrainian attacks force Russia to relocate Black Sea fleet "Ukraine’s top military leader says war is at a stalemate and a ‘beautiful breakthrough’ is unlikely""
Interview 7 months old, but seems only widely reported on recently.
By Mallika Soni
Sep 10, 2023 10:34 PM IST
Russia-Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin promoted lieutenant general Andrey Mordvichev to the rank of colonel-general.
Russia-Ukraine War: Smoke rises above buildings following a shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine.(Reuters)
A key Russian general who Russian president Vladimir Putin promoted this week said that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine is a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe. Vladimir Putin promoted lieutenant general Andrey Mordvichev to the rank of colonel-general after he had already been serving in the role of commanding the central military district and Russian central grouping of forces in Ukraine.
In an interview with Moscow's state-run Russia-1, Andrey Mordvichev said that he believes Vladimir Putin's war will last quite a long time and expand in the future.
"I think there's still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer," the general said.
"Ukraine is only a stepping stone?" the interviewer then asked.
"Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning," he responded adding that the war “will not stop here.”
💬 This war will last for a long time, because we still need to liberate Eastern Europe, says Russian general and war criminal Andrei Mordvichev.
The interview was recorded at the end of July this year and Mordvichev assumed that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would slow down by… pic.twitter.com/MB9m1YYcLV
Earlier, some of Vladimir Putin's allies have floated the possibility of expanding the Kremlin's invasion into NATO countries, including Poland and several other Eastern European nations.
This comes as Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky again rejected a suggestion that Ukraine would need to cede territory to Russia to end the war. “Did you see any compromises from Putin in other issues?” the Ukrainian leader told CNN as Russia wrapped up elections in the four Ukrainian regions — Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson — that Moscow annexed a year ago.