Russian Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev said Friday that Russia plans to take "full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine," CBS News reported.
These gains, he said, would open "a land corridor to Crimea" — connecting the separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine with the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014 — and "give the Russian army access to Transnistria." Transnistria is a narrow strip of land with around 400,000 inhabitants that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova but is de facto self-governing. Russia has had troops stationed in Moldova since 1992.
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