Control of Donbas would allow Moscow to create a southern corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula. Ahead of the widely anticipated advance, Ukrainian authorities had urged people in Donbas to flee west to escape
People board a bus leaving Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region, on April 13, 2022 as Russian troops intensified a campaign to take the strategic port city of Mariupol, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across eastern Ukraine. (Credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)