reporter: in the latest development coming from command structures, we heard from the commander of the russian central command, a major general, saying the russian strategic aim is not only the demark of the liberation or to not go to the donbas, the eastern of the country. it has added in the south of ukraine. perhaps all the way to the border with moldova. there is a russian-controlled enclave of russian-speaking people, that the russians would like to link up with. if that were possible, and he suggested that would be the ultimate aim, there would be a land link all the way between moldova and russia, right through ukrainian territory, including the port city of odesa. the russian troops are a long way from odesa.
so russia s goal now is to take full control of southern ukraine, creating really a land corridor to crimea and on the other end, moldova. president zelenskyy speaking in his nightly address to the nation says this only proves that the russian invasion of ukraine is, quote, only the beginning, that they want to capture other countries. our sam kiley has more now from dnipro. reporter: in the latest development coming from the russian command structures, we ve heard from the commander of the russian central command, the major general, saying that the russians strategic aim now is not only the de-nazification or the liberation of ukraine, but it is focused back not towards the donbas entirely that s the east of the country but has now added in the south of ukraine, perhaps all the way to the border with moldova
there was that fuel depot that was hit by helicopter attack in belgorod, that russians say they will attack decisionmaking centers, including possibly kyiv. how seriously should that threaten taken? there have been many threats from russians that have not come to fruition. how about that one? this is purely an idle threat. in the 2008 war in georgia, that was the first thing they tried to go after, command and control centers. same thing in 2014 during the annexation of crimea. server the communications, those command structures in the capital. this is is not new. russia has been trying to hit them to this point, they ve been unsuccessful. it s a threat to deter ukraine from conducting cross-border attacks. this has been a primary focus, but russia has not been able to
in time a freighter offensive will be possible? in time a freighter offensive will be ossible? .., ,., be possible? it could in some time but what we be possible? it could in some time but what we are be possible? it could in some time but what we are seeing be possible? it could in some time but what we are seeing is - be possible? it could in some time but what we are seeing is they re l but what we are seeing is they re having a lot of difficulties with integrating the learning into their existing command structures. the russian units on the ground or having severe issues with logistics and communications and high rates of desertion and already the best units had been committed to this operation and they are scraping the barrel in some respects putting these units forward and going into a conscript that s unlikely to turn the tide for the russians in the coming months. as this continues to attract these question numbers and additional supply may start to enable further drives
enormous afghan army and police force with 350,000 personnel that was modeled on the centralized command structures and complex bureaucracy of the defense department. the pentagon kept throwing money at the problem and assigning new generals for the solution. at what point did it become evident that there was not a solution. they were the afghanistan papers that go back almost 20 years that document the problems trying to stand up this force. there were problems with the literacy with the afghan recruits. there were problems with equipment and trying to get afghans to teach them our weapons systems and there was problems with motivation and dissertion. there were problems for years and years that the afghan security forces would have trouble defending their government with u.s. help. we ll be hearing from the president on afghanistan at the top of the hour. let s remind viewers about his comments last month, long before this chaos in kabul.