Pushing back against a narrative that the invasion has stumbled and is targeting population centers, a Russian official also familiar with the campaign’s planning said it was on track and designed specifically to avoid urban warfare in cities.

The time frame for the operation’s military goals was between one and two weeks, rather than a few days, after which Ukraine’s military should be crushed and its government replaced with one friendly to Moscow, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. The official added that capturing cities, with the heavy loss of civilian life that would likely entail, was not on the agenda.

That account of Russian goals largely fits with the analysis of military specialists in the West and President Vladimir Putin’s stated aim of “demilitarizing” rather than occupying Ukraine, although it does not appear to match everything that has happened on the ground.