Putin's 'Important' War Documents Found At War Site; Reveal Plans To Occupy Entire Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin had planned to take over entire Ukraine, according to Russian documents found abandoned by Ukrainian officials in the town of Trostyanets.

Ukraine’s Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday announced that it found several pieces of documents while investigating the northeastern town of Trostyanets, which fell under the control of Russian troops for a month during the invasion. The documents revealed that Putin was preparing to take over all of Ukraine.

“The investigators of the DBR knew important documents of the military forces of the Russian Federation, which clearly give an insight that Russia was preparing to take over the whole territory of Ukraine. All this information will be taken and studied,” Ukraine’s State Bureau of Information Chief Oleksiy Sukhachev said in a Telegram post.

The Russian military had used the town of Trostyanets as a passageway for tanks heading toward the capital city of Kyiv. However, the soldiers later fled the town they were met with a flurry of Ukrainian resistance. The Russian occupation reduced much of the town to rubble.

The recovered documents appear to confirm warnings from intelligence officials of the West that the Kremlin plans to take over more than just Ukraine’s eastern region. When Putin first announced the invasion on Feb. 24, he said the “military operation” aimed to “denazify” Ukraine. He also added that he wanted to ensure Ukraine’s neutral status by taking Kyiv swiftly. However, the plan failed, forcing Putin to reposition his forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Despite repositioning, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin has not given any indication that he has changed his plans to control the whole of Ukraine.

"We have seen no indication that President Putin has changed his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine and also to rewrite the international order," Stoltenberg told reporters in April.

Russian military leaders, including Central Military District Commander Rustam Minnekayev, previously admitted that their goal was to attain full control of the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.

As of Wednesday, Russian soldiers have occupied several regions in the east and southeast, including Izyum, Severodonetsk, Luhansk, Donetsk, Mariupol and Melitopol.