kyivmariupol ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy warned that russias invasion of his country was just the beginning and that moscow has designs on capturing other countries after a russian general said it wants full control over southern ukraineall the nations that like us believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us they must help us because we are the first in line and who will come next zelenskyy said in a video address late on fridayrustam minnekayev deputy commander of russias central military district was quoted by russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern ukraine would give it access to transnistria a breakaway russianoccupied part of moldova in the westthat would cut off ukraines entire coastline and mean russian forces pushing hundreds of miles west beyond current lines past the major ukrainian coastal cities of mykolaiv and odesaon twitter ukraines defence ministry said minnekayevs statement showed russia was no longer hiding its intentionsmoscow it said had now acknowledged that the goal of the second phase of the war is not victory over the mythical nazis but simply the occupation of eastern and southern ukraine imperialism as it isrussia says it is conducting a special military operation to demilitarise ukraine and liberate its population from dangerous nationalists ukraine and its western allies call russias invasion an unjustified war of aggressionminnekayev said russian speakers were oppressed in transnistria something moldova and western leaders rejectmoldovas foreign ministry said it had summoned moscows ambassador on friday to express deep concern about the generals comments moldova was neutral it saidmoldova last month formally applied to join the european union charting a prowestern course hastened by russias invasion its president maia sandu said on twitter that on friday moldova had submitted its first questionnaire for eu membership as it sought a better safer more prosperous futureus state department spokesperson jalina porter declined specific comment on minnekayevs statement but said washington firmly supported moldovas sovereignty and was cleareyed about events on the ground no one should be fooled by the kremlins announcements porter saidkremlin spokesman dmitry peskov declined to comment when asked if russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how moscow saw the political future of southern ukraineas us secretary of state antony blinken met with ukrainian prime minister denys shmyhal in washington zelenskyysaid allies were finally delivering the weapons kyiv had asked forus president joe biden said on thursday he had authorized a further 800 million in military aid for ukraine including heavy artillery ammunition and tactical drones canada said on friday it had provided more heavy artillery to ukraine following up on a pledge earlier this weeka senior eu official said the next couple of weeks would likely be decisivethis is not a fairy tale with an imminent happy ending he told reporters we are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of russian military attacks in the east and the coastukraines military said russian forces had increased attacks along the frontline