London believes Russia is preparing to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the Donbass region in the east of the country, moving troops from their positions in Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south.
According to a military intelligence report published this Sunday by the UK Ministry of Defense, Russia “appears to be focusing its efforts on encircling Ukrainian forces that are fighting in the breakaway regions in the east of the country”.
To this end, Moscow is moving troops that were stationed in Kharkiv and Mariupol, where two of the main battles of the war are taking place.
Russia said on Friday that its army’s objective, once the first phase of the war has concluded, is to focus on Donbass, an announcement that the Ukrainian government and its allies received with skepticism.
In Donbass, the leader of the self-proclaimed breakaway republic of Lugansk, Leonid Paschenik, today admitted to holding, “in the near future”, a referendum on the integration of pro-Russian territory into Russia.
“I believe that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, in which people will exercise their absolute constitutional right and express their opinion on whether they want to join the Russian Federation. For some reason, I am sure that this is exactly what will happen,” he said, quoted by the official TASS agency.
The Ukrainian President, for his part, has warned Moscow that it is sowing deep anti-Russian hatred among Ukrainians, as its attacks reduce the country’s cities to rubble, kill civilians, push others into shelters and force many to look for food and water to survive.
“You are doing everything to make our people abandon the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated, not only with you, but with your explosions and murders, with your crimes,” said Volodymyr Zelensky in a video released on Saturday to night.
On February 24, Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine that killed at least 1,081 civilians, including 93 children, and injured 1,707, including 120 minors, and caused the flight of 10 million people. , of which 3.7 million went to neighboring countries, according to the latest UN data, which warns that the real number of civilian casualties is much higher.
According to the United Nations, around 13 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community in general, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and reinforcing economic and political sanctions on Moscow.
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