Violent battles have taken place since the start of military operations last February, inside the city of Mariupol, which has been controlled by the Russian forces to a large extent during the past days, with the exception of some points that the Ukrainian forces insisted on not giving up.
Russia had modified its plans and withdrew its forces from the northern regions, stressing that it would focus from now on on what it described as the “liberation” of the Donbas region in eastern Russia.
Donetsk and Luhansk form the Russian-speaking Donbas region, which was seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014, and a large Ukrainian unit has been stationed there since then.
future of war
And on the future of the war after the fall of Mariupol, the director of strategies and armaments at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, former NATO official, William Alberkey, said, “The situation was terrible in the city, as in any besieged city in the past half century, as the forces forced The remaining Ukrainians have to engage in ever smaller pockets of resistance, including within steel mills, which are surrounded and separated from the world.”
Alberki added, in an exclusive interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that “it is terrifying, especially since there are still civilians in the city, and all of them are suffering appallingly, without drinking water, sanitation or food.”
He explained that it was expected that the Russian forces would tighten their siege on the city, and “will not stop until they control it or completely eliminate those in it.”
Russia’s next step
Regarding the next step for the Russian army, Alberki said that Moscow has shifted its attention to crushing the Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, that is, in the Donbass.
He added, “The Russian forces began a series of attacks in the north of Donbass, in the center and in the south, in an attempt to encircle and destroy the Ukrainian forces, as Russia returned to its traditional way of fighting with massive air strikes, missile strikes and artillery shelling, followed by fast-moving heavy armored units.”
“For Ukraine, it will be a desperate battle to hold as much territory as possible in the hope that they can exhaust the Russians, identify weaknesses and cut off extended forces, and push them back if possible,” he said.
The former NATO official stressed that “Mariopol represents a stronghold of the resistance, which has now passed through difficult days. While its fall was expected during the past few days, this was exceptionally delayed.”
British intelligence said that Russian forces are advancing from several areas in the Donbass towards Kramatorsk, and are seeking to provide significant air support for their operation in eastern Ukraine.
This was indicated by the head of the Russian-Arab Dialogue Center Muslim Shaito, who told Sky News Arabia, “The protection of the (separatist) republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the Donbass region was and remains the first and main reason for Russia’s fight against this war, as for about a decade and the population These Russian-majority regions are subjected to various forms of racial discrimination, aggression and even extermination by the Kyiv authorities,” he said.
According to analysts, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to achieve victory in the Donbass before the military parade on May 9 in Moscow’s Red Square, the day commemorating the victory of the Soviets over the Nazis.
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