The British think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) got hold of documents allegedly signed by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, which state that Russia planned to conquer Ukraine in 10 days and annex it by August 2022.
According to the mentioned documents, only a small number of Russian officials knew about all the details of those plans. In them, it is written that the deputies of certain branches of the Russian army did not know that the invasion of Ukraine was being prepared, and that they found out about it only a few days before it began. Some units found out about the invasion only a few hours before it began.
Russia planned to seize Ukraine’s substations, airports, water supply, central bank and parliament, and Russian special forces were to kill Ukrainian leaders. RUSI says Russia apparently expected members of the Ukrainian government to either flee the country or be caught.
Ukrainian intelligence officials believe that Russia planned to use the Belarusian air force to seize the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants. The mentioned documents also contained instructions for seizing Ukrainian nuclear power plants and controlling the Ukrainian energy network. Russia allegedly wanted to blackmail Europe with the risk of radiation.
RUSI says that Russia wanted to start the invasion with numerous air and missile attacks on Ukrainian military targets. The documents stated that Russia did not plan to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure because it was important for its occupation of the country.
Russian counter-intelligence officers compiled a list of Ukrainians, which was divided into four categories: people to kill, people to intimidate, people to encourage cooperation, and people willing to cooperate. The Russians say that the Russians planned to enumerate and classify all Ukrainians, and that process was supposed to look like a census.
Russia planned to coerce local and regional authorities into cooperation, and Russian intelligence agents were to arrest Ukrainian officials. Finally, Russia planned to send teachers and officials to Ukraine who were then supposed to start the project of “re-education” of Ukrainians.
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