This would give it access to ports crucial to its economy, and to its military fleet there on the Black Sea. It's widely believed that Russia is focusing its attacks on the Donbas region in order to fully claim the territory and to enable it to create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, on the southern Ukrainian coast. In March, Putin signed a decree ordering 134,500 new conscripts into the army, raising eyebrows that they could destined to fight in Ukraine Putin insisted they would not.
The mass mobilization of Russia's population for wartime operations would be a big step for Putin, however, potentially putting him at risk of popular dissent, particularly if thousands of new, young Russian conscripts are sent to fight in the war despite having little training. Given the unpredictable nature of Putin's leadership, Alberque said that "ultimately we have to prepare for the worst." "Or, the alternative is that he declares actual war and a total war mobilization." "One is he just declares victory with what he has and he says: 'Look, I expanded the DPR and LPR ,' and says: 'I connected them to Crimea and the land bridge, and we secured the water supplies for Crimea and now I can declare that it's part of Russia'," Alberque said. Looking ahead to Victory Day, William Alberque, director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said there are "two real big options" for Putin.