Russia signals it could try to seize Kyiv again at some point

A senior Russian official has signaled that Russian forces could make another attempt to capture Kyiv, after a failed attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital early in the war.

Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, told Russian media agencies that Russia could “reach Kiev,” using the Russian spelling of the city, saying it could happen later, if not now.

“Where to stop? I don’t know … Will it be Kiev? Yes, probably it should be Kiev. If not now, then … maybe at some other phase in the development of this conflict,” Medvedev said in an interview with Russian media, including RIA Novosti, which published his remarks.

The comments suggest that, two years into the war and bolstered by recent gains, Moscow continues to harbor ambitions to conquer the whole of Ukraine and will not be content to occupy just a fifth of the country, as is currently the case.

Russia claims that the partially occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are now a part of Russia, a claim roundly rejected by Ukraine and its allies.

Medvedev, a former Russian prime minister and president who served alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin over the last two decades — albeit remaining subservient in either role — is as a vocal hawk in Russia’s political establishment and is known for his saber-rattling when it comes to the war.

Nonetheless, his comments indicate that within Putin’s inner circle, capturing Kyiv and destroying the pro-Western government under Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains a key ideological and political ambition.

In his latest interview, Medvedev commented that “this regime must fall, it must be destroyed, it must not remain in this world.”

Kyiv was a “Russian city,” he claimed, warning that in Ukrainian hands it was “a threat to the existence of the Russian…