US spy chief predicts spring attack on Ukraine port

‘Russia wants to secure a land corridor in eastern Ukraine that could include Mariupol but pro-Moscow rebels may wait until the spring to attack the strategic port city, the US spy chief said Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aim was not to seize all of Ukraine but to carve out territory linking up with the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow last year after the fall of a pro-Moscow leader in Kiev, James Clapper told lawmakers.’

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