A retired British General has said that the war in Ukraine has now entered its decisive second phase and that a “big battle” for the Donbas area in the east of the country is looming. 

The Donbas is roughly the size of Switzerland and, as a prelude to the war in February, Putin announced that the two regions of Luhansk and Donetsk were independent.

Most locals speak Russian and the Kremlin has repeatedly lied that the Ukrainian Government was engaged in genocide against them. 

If Moscow were to win control of the region, Putin would likely annex it into the Russian Federation - as he did with Crimea in 2014. 

Crimea. 24th Feb, 2022. A column of Russian army trucks approaches the Perekop checkpoint. Picture by: Sergei Malgavko/TASS/Alamy Live News

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former head of Britain’s Joint Forces Command, told Newstalk Breakfast that the next phase of the war would be decisive for the Ukrainians: 

“This is going to be a really big battle,” Sir Richard said. 

“[With] a lot more tanks, aircraft, artillery focused in the Donbas. 

“From the Ukrainian perspective they have their best military in that area and they’re, in many cases, very well prepared positions. 

“They’ll try and reapply the tactics that worked so well around Kyiv but if the Russians tanks don’t have to stay on roads and they’ve learnt lessons and they manoeuvre more freely across larger areas, then the Ukrainian tactics will have to change - and not necessarily to their advantage."

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He continued: 

“The Russian military has been astonishingly poor in a professional military sense in this war so far and the question is, ‘Have they learnt lessons? Are they able to raise their performance?’ 

“And frankly, in the time that they’ve had, I’d be surprised if they were. 

“So we may find actually that the Russian military can’t make the progress they aspire to.” 

The Ukrainian military has said it believes that 18,900 Russian troops have died since the conflict began, while the Kremlin insists the figure is in fact 1,351.

Main image: krainian Army Ground Forces soldiers following a live-fire training exercise at Central City Camp, International Peacekeeping and Security Center October 29, 2015 near Yavoriv, Ukraine. Picture by: Alamy.com