Skepticism greets a bold Russian claim about war aims, based on its source.

When Gen. Rustam Minnekayev made a sweeping assertion on Friday that Russia’s subsequent army purpose could be to grab Ukraine’s total southern coast, many analysts had been skeptical, primarily based not solely on the declare, however on its supply.

Why would a comparatively obscure army determine announce such a significant shift in coverage, reasonably than President Vladimir V. Putin, who often makes such pronouncements, or Protection Minister Sergei Ok. Shoigu, or Gen. Aleksandr V. Dvornikov, the chief Russian commander for the warfare in Ukraine?

Normal Minnekayev’s official job is the group of political propaganda work within the military’s central district, which includes an enormous territory from the Volga basin to japanese Siberia. His duties usually wouldn’t contain formulating army technique.

But he advised a gathering of arms trade representatives in Yekaterinburg — greater than 1,000 miles away from the combating — that Russia was looking for to seize a swath of Ukrainian territory from the Donbas area to Moldova. That will lower off Ukraine’s entry to the Black Sea, Normal Minnekayev stated, in accordance with Russian information businesses, permitting Russia to “affect essential components of the Ukrainian economic system” and acquire “one more level of entry” to the pro-Russian enclave of Moldova often called Transnistria.

In line with the protection ministry’s web site, Normal Minnekayev, who’s stationed in Yekaterinburg, has been principally concerned in initiatives unrelated to the invasion, equivalent to discussing the development of an Orthodox cathedral with the clergy or indoctrinating the nation’s youth.

“One in every of our important objectives is the work with the veterans and patriotic upbringing of the brand new technology,” Normal Minnekayev advised Pink Star, the protection ministry’s official newspaper, final April. “We have to inform the youth the reality in regards to the warfare that our ancestors haven’t been combating in useless.”

Yuri Fyodorov, a Russian army analyst, stated that, on paper, Normal Minnekayev’s important line of labor is “brainwashing” Russian servicemen. However in actuality, he stated, the overall’s important job is to “accumulate details about the officers: their views and moods.”

Normal Minnekayev manages “a system of political management of officers which exists in parallel to army counterintelligence,” Mr. Fyodorov stated in an interview.

In Mr. Fyodorov’s view, the commander was most likely sanctioned by his superiors to make such a press release, which was then reported by TASS, a state-run information company.

“Appears like combating is ongoing amongst varied teams within the larger echelons of energy,” he stated.

Tatyana Stanovaya, a founding father of the political consultancy R. Politik, stated that Normal Minnekayev “is just not the one who is meant to make such statements,” and that it’s doable he made it “for propaganda causes.”

Moscow couldn’t deny the assertion, she stated in a social media put up, as a result of it could make the Russian conservative faction “enraged.” In a daily briefing, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, declined to touch upon whether or not Normal Minnekayev’s feedback mirrored Mr. Putin’s considering.