Russia May Try to Split Country, Says Ukraine Intelligence, Predicts ‘Total Guerrilla Warfare’

He predicted that Ukrainian resistance will grow into a “total” guerrilla warfare, derailing Russia’s attempts.

Kyiv, Ukraine: The chief of the Ukraine military intelligence has expressed concerns that their eastern neighbour Russia, with whom they are at an armed conflict for over a month, could try to break their country in two.

The Ukraine military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said in remarks released by the Defense Ministry on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has realized “he can’t swallow the entire country” and would likely try to split the country under “the Korean scenario,” referring to the decades-old division between North and South Korea.

He added that Putin will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, this is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine. After all, he is definitely not able to ‘swallow up’ the whole state, he added.

“After their failures near Kiev and inability to overthrow Ukraine’s central government, Putin is already shifting his main operational directions – now it is the south and the east. He may be considering a ‘Korean’ scenario for Ukraine,” Budanov said, as reported by Ukrayinska Pravda.

Budanov said that “the occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine.” He pointed to Russian attempts to set up parallel government structures in occupied cities and to bar people from using the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia.

“The occupiers will try to unite the occupied territories into a single quasi-state entity that will oppose independent Ukraine. We are already seeing attempts to create ‘parallel’ authorities in the occupied territories and force people to reject the hryvnia (Ukrainian currency). They may want to use this scenario to bargain with at the international level,” Budanov added.

He predicted that Ukrainian resistance will grow into a “total” guerrilla warfare, derailing Russia’s attempts.

(With agency inputs)