Russia has reframed its war goals in Ukraine in a way that may make it easier for President Vladimir Putin to claim a face-saving victory despite a woeful campaign in which his army has suffered humiliating setbacks, military analysts say.
Russia attacked its neighbor by land, air and sea on Feb. 24 and pushed as far as the capital Kyiv — where its forces have been stalled for weeks — in what Ukraine and the West said was a bid to topple the democratic government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Friday, however, a senior military official said the real objective was to "liberate" the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian Army for the past eight years.