The Kremlin maintains the idea that two Ukrainian regions – Kharkov and Odessa – are “old Russian lands”. This is what co-director of foreign policy programs, coordinator of international projects of the Razumkov Center in Kiev, military expert Alexey Melnik, said in an interview with Ukrainian media, IPN reports.

He believes that in the context of the upcoming “elections”, which he is about to win, Putin could launch scares with the “annexation” of other territories, besides those occupied in Ukraine. Having the questionable capacity to invade new lands, the dictator needs affirmation/legitimation, a particularly relevant factor in a situation where support for both the “SVO” and himself in the Russian Federation has waned.

The expert notes that none of the “new regions” that he “annexed” is completely controlled by the Russian Federation. But by making this voluntary decision to annex foreign lands, Putin actually created “occupied territories” if we follow the logic of Russian laws. Today the Russian Federation has “occupied territories”, which did not exist until 2022.

As for the recent warning by former CIA chief David Petraeus about the danger of invasion of Moldova or other countries in the few weeks remaining until the “elections” in Russia, the expert opined that “this thing cannot be linked to elections, although Russia constantly carries out various destabilization campaigns and not only in the countries of the so-called post-Soviet space. Russia constantly seeks to create chaos somewhere and then control it.”

“What General Petraeus spoke about is one of the possible scenarios if Russia is allowed to achieve a military victory. Both the Moldovans and the President of the Republic of Moldova have repeatedly said that the fate of Moldova today depends on Ukraine.

“Of course, it cannot be said that Russia will immediately attack the Baltic countries, but the fact that the level of threat to them will increase significantly is also a completely obvious fact,” concluded the expert.