Despite the international attention focused on the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, fears of imminent fighting in eastern Ukraine are also surfacing. Ukrainian authorities warned of Russian plans to launch attacks in eastern Ukraine, announcing that Moscow is preparing to call up about 60,000 reservists to bolster its offensive in the east. They clarified that Russia's main targets include the port city of Mariupol and Kharkiv, the second-largest city in the country.
In this context, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, stated in a video message, "Last night, we see equipment arriving from different directions, and we see the Russians reinforcing their ranks and resupplying… They are preparing for a massive attack." He urged residents of the area to evacuate, saying in his message, "Please do not hesitate… Do not wait until your homes are bombed."
Meanwhile, the mayor of Borova, a town located halfway between Luhansk and Kharkiv, asked residents to leave. Alexander Tertychny posted on Facebook, "We are forced to make the decision to evacuate the residents to ensure citizens' safety. Those who can leave by their private cars are invited to do so!" He also mentioned that authorities have put buses into service to transport residents to the train station.
Thousands of civilians have been evacuated in recent days from the southeastern city of Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks and surrounded by areas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region. A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross clarified yesterday that a team from the committee was stopped during an attempt to reach Mariupol for civilian evacuations and is currently detained in a neighboring town.
The United States also warned of upcoming battles in the east, with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announcing that Russia is likely planning to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers in eastern Ukraine while shifting its focus to the southern and eastern parts of the country. He added in a press conference at the White House, "At this stage, we believe that Russia is reassessing its war objectives to focus on eastern Ukraine and parts of the south instead of targeting most of the territory." He noted that Moscow's goal seems to likely be encircling and crushing Ukrainian forces in the region, which could later allow them to claim battlefield progress and thereby conceal any previous military failures.
Furthermore, he predicted that the next phase of Russian military operations could be prolonged, particularly given the numerical superiority of Russian forces over their Ukrainian counterparts. He anticipated that Moscow would seek to control a much larger area in eastern Ukraine than that previously held by separatists before the military operation.
It was also mentioned that in the south, there is a goal to control the city of Kherson to manage the water flow to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. He indicated that further air and missile strikes across the country are expected from the Kremlin. Notably, Russian forces announced last week that they would reduce operations around Kyiv to focus on eastern Ukraine, considering this a goodwill gesture to advance peace negotiations between the two countries. However, Kyiv and its Western allies have repeatedly expressed skepticism about Russian intentions, predicting that fierce fighting will soon erupt in eastern Ukraine and in the south, especially in Mariupol, which has been of utmost importance to the Russians since the military operation began on February 24th, as controlling it would provide a bridge to eastern areas where pro-Russian forces are located, connecting to the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
