Russia's military goals now:

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. That means an effective annexation of part of Moldova too, and taking all of Ukraine's coastline

The 'rebel' Transnistrian part of Moldova currently has Russian "peacekeeping" troops, which are there to keep Moldovan troops out. If there's any "oppression" going on there, it's by the Russian ally regime.

This is full-on old-fashioned imperialism, and wanting to make Ukraine permanently weak, even if it holds on to central Ukraine. Ukraine would have no option but to join the EU as fast as possible, because it would need export routes not dependent on the sociopath next door.

I think they'd have a hard time of it, though - the sinking of the Moskva shows the Ukrainians can defend a shoreline (their shoreline around the Sea of Azov was always harder for them to defend in the first few days, and the Russian army got there quickly; the Black Sea shore proper is where they had to withdraw ships after the Moskva was sunk. And they stalled on advancing west from Kherson.