Possible Russian invasion plans for Ukraine

Russia continues to threaten a potential invasion of Ukraine with
a major military buildup near the Russian-Ukrainian border

Eastern advance
Russian forces seizeUkrainian territory asfar west as Dnieper –river could form limit ofadvance or first phaseline of larger invasion

Black Sea coast
Seize belt of land fromRussia to Transnistria –to secure freshwatersupplies for Crimea andblock Ukraine’s accessto sea

Western advance
Seize all of Ukraine –would require largeoccupation force tocontrol population andguard borders withNATO countries

Potential Belarusian flanking movement

Potential amphibious or airborne landing

BELARUS
UKRAINE
RUSSIA
  POLAND
ROMANIA
MOLDOVA
HUNGARY
BULGARIA
SLOVAKIA
BLACK SEA
Sea of Azov
Kiev
Kharkiv
Dnipro
Dnieper
River
Voronezh
Kursk
Luhansk
Melitopol
Mariupol
Donetsk
Rostov
Zaporizhia
Kherson
Sevastopol
Vinnytsia
Lviv
Odessa

200km
125 miles

Donbas – held by pro-Russian separatists

Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014

Transnistria – separatistregion of Moldova
supported by Russia


Sources: BBC, Centre for Strategic and International Studies
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