Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine plan that even his military didn’t know of, revealed

A British defence and security think tank revealed details of Moscow’s pre-invasion plan for Ukraine, based on captured Russian documents apparently signed off by Vladimir Putin.

Russia had planned to take over Ukraine in 10 days and annex it by August, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said.

According to the British Army-linked think tank, only a small group of Russian officials were aware of the full scale of the plans and even deputy heads of branches within the Russian military were unaware of the plan to invade and occupy Ukraine until days before the invasion began, and tactical military units didn’t receive orders until hours before.

The documents also revealed that Russia planned to capture Ukraine’s power stations, airfields, water supplies, central bank and parliament – and that Russian special services were tasked with killing the Ukrainian leadership. They appeared to assume Ukrainian government officials would “either flee or be captured as a result of the speed of the invasion”, RUSI said.

The invasion plan detailed plots to capture Ukraine’s nuclear power plants in order to shelter Russian troops, gain control over the country’s energy system, and potentially blackmail European countries with the risk of radiation pollution.

The Russian counterintelligence regime had compiled lists of some Ukrainians, RUSI said who were divided into four categories, Those who should be killed, those in need of suppression and intimidation, those considered neutral who should be encouraged to collaborate and those prepared to collaborate.