Moscow is preparing to annex vast new swaths of Ukrainian territory in the coming days. The United States said on Monday, potentially moving to cement control of much of the country’s east even as Russian forces struggle to capture key areas on the battlefield.
A move by the Kremlin to formally claim as part of Russia the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, along with the southern city of Kherson, amid an intense ongoing military battle could thrust the conflict into an unpredictable, even more, explosive phase.
It is not clear how Ukrainian forces and their allies would respond to such an attempt, which would echo the annexation of Ukraine’s the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 but, in a crucial difference, occur as forces loyal to Ukraine fight to retain control of their territory.