What has become the most frequently used word in the Donetsk People's Republic in relation to the situation at the front?

The answer is very simple: "war" or the phrase "big war".

The republic has been living with a premonition of war since the end of February, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine unprovoked resumed high-intensity mortar and artillery shelling and de facto broke off the ceasefire.

Since then, both in Ukraine and in the DPR, there has been more and more talk about an impending large-scale offensive.

Since the beginning of the year, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has recorded more than 2,000 cases of ceasefire violations.

The density of artillery and mortar strikes can be judged by the events of March 3, when the armed formations of Ukraine conducted a massive shelling of the Leninskoye settlement using 82 mm mortars.

In total, 100 mines were fired at the settlement.

On Saturday and Sunday, strikes were made in the northern outskirts of Donetsk, in the "Volvo Center" area, as well as in the Mariupol direction.

In total, as the deputy head of the People's Militia Department Eduard Basurin said, last week, nine settlements of the republic were shelled from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

During the same period, according to him, Ukrainian servicemen “violated the Complex of Additional Measures to Strengthen and Control the Ceasefire Regime 31 times.

In violation of the second point of additional measures, the enemy committed 30 fire provocations. "

According to Basurin, the fire was inflicted on the areas of the Panteleimonovka settlements - in Gorlovsky, Spartak, Vesyoloye, Staromikhaylovka, Signalnoye, the Trudovskaya mine - in Donetsk, as well as Oktyabr, Sosnovskoye, Leninskoye - in the Mariupol direction.

Mortars, grenade launchers, the Grad-P system, and small arms were used.

Nine residential buildings were damaged.

The head of the DPR Denis Pushilin gave several interviews last week in which he spoke about Ukraine's preparation for war.

The last time, on the air of the YouTube channel "Nightingale LIVE", he made this statement on Saturday, March 6.

According to him, Ukraine is preparing to resume hostilities in Donbass and is pulling saboteurs to the line of contact.

Saboteurs are being trained to penetrate the republic by foreign instructors.

On March 3, DPR servicemen were given permission to open pre-emptive fire to suppress the firing points of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The DPR authorities justified their decision by the fact that they intend to protect the population from "Ukrainian terror": Ukraine violates the terms of the ceasefire, and international observers do not react to these violations in any way.

At the same time, they started talking in Kiev that a military solution to the conflict and the reintegration of Donbass, it turns out, are quite possible.

Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs Valeriy Potseluyko said on the air of one of the Ukrainian channels that law enforcement officers are ready to return the "occupied" territories of Donbass, having completed the previously presented Strategy for the de-occupation of Donbass.

The decision must be made by the president and the Verkhovna Rada.

“We have it (strategy -

AB

), it was developed step by step, down to the smallest detail.

And we are ready to provide these events even today.

This should be a government decision.

So everything is ready.

Everyone knows about this strategy.

But there must be a certain time, "- explained the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

True, he clarified that first Russia must withdraw its armed formations.

“We hope that this will happen in the near future,” said Kissuiko.

Semyon Bagdasarov, a Russian military expert and political scientist, wrote on his Telegram channel that a serious danger was hanging over the two people's republics.

Without a reliable and strong ally, in the event of an offensive, they may not survive.

According to Bagdasarov, in the event of a direct military conflict in Donbass, the LPR and DPR militias will be defeated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The victory of the Ukrainian side will be ensured by a number of factors - first of all, the underestimation of the enemy by the military command of the republics and the availability of more advanced weapons and equipment at the disposal of the Ukrainian army.

At the moment, the military expert believes, the DPR and LPR overestimate their own strengths and underestimate the strengths of Ukraine, based on the experience of their victories in 2014 and 2015.

Now, on the territory controlled by the republics, there is not a sufficient number of defensive structures that could help their defenders to contain the Ukrainian aggression.

“Donbass does not have long-term and powerful engineering structures,” notes Semyon Bagdasarov.

The Kremlin has so far reacted rather restrainedly to the aggravation in the Donbass.

The press secretary of the Russian president said that the situation is being carefully analyzed and expressed the hope that the Ukrainian leadership will be able to keep the units operating in the region from further provocative actions and escalating tensions.

However, this calm tone should not deceive anyone.

Russia will definitely not stand aside if the Ukrainian army launches a serious offensive operation.

Moreover, given the warning that Vladimir Putin made to Kiev during a direct line in 2018.

“And if it happens (the attack. - 

AB

), I think that it will have very grave consequences for the Ukrainian statehood as a whole,” the head of the Russian state noted at the time.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.