'War plan was cleared on Jan 18 to capture Ukraine in 15 days'

Moscow: Russia's secret war documents have revealed that the plans for Moscow's war with Ukraine were approved on January 18 and it anticipated that the capture must be executed within 15 days, from February 20 to March 6.

In a Facebook post , Ukraine's Joint Forces Operations Command said: "Due to the successful actions of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian occupiers are losing not only equipment and manpower.

"In a panic, they leave secret documents. Thus, we have at our disposal the planning documents of one of the units of the battalion tactical group of the 810th separate brigade of marines of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.

"Among the received documents are a work card, combat mission, call sign table, control signal tables, hidden control tables, personnel list, etc.

"Based on the information received, it is known that the planning documents for the war with Ukraine were approved on January 18, and the operation to capture Ukraine itself must take place within 15 days, namely from February 20 till March 6.

"The enemy unit was to disembark from the Orsk VDK in the area of the Stepanovka-1 settlement and further act with the military units of the 58th Army of the Russian Federation, namely with the 177th Separate Regiment of Marines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The ultimate goal of these forces was to blockade and take control of Melitopol.

A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested senior Russian officials to wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion of Ukraine, CNN reported citing US officials as saying.

US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Wednesday.

Although the request was made around the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics where he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, it is not clear from the report whether former addressed the matter with the latter directly, the source said.

The New York Times first reported the existence of the report.

Western intelligence officials warily watching Putin's buildup on the Ukrainian border at the time and had anticipated that the Russian President might delay any military action until after the Olympics to avoid angering China, CNN reported.