June 2026
Resistance forces have advanced to within 60 kilometres of Mandalay — Myanmar’s second city — in the most significant push toward the former royal capital since the military coup of February 2021. The Brotherhood Alliance seized the town of Pale on June 1 and is pressing north along the Sagaing-Mandalay highway, effectively surrounding the city on three sides, according to battlefield reports and independent monitors.
The junta responded with a wave of airstrikes targeting civilian areas behind the front lines, killing at least 12 people and destroying homes in Sagaing Region, according to local volunteers and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The UN said on Tuesday that at least 280,000 civilians have been displaced in the central Dry Zone in recent weeks, with food and medical supplies running critically low.
Thailand sealed three major border crossings in Chiang Rai Province on Tuesday, citing security concerns and an influx of wounded fighters and civilians. India called for an emergency regional response and said it was monitoring the situation along its 1,600-kilometre border with Myanmar. China dispatched a senior envoy to Naypyidaw for talks on Tuesday.
Analysts said the fall of Mandalay would be the most symbolically and strategically devastating blow to the military since the coup, effectively splitting the country in two and cutting the junta’s north-south transportation corridor.
Myanmar has been in civil war since February 2021. The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed since the coup, with millions more displaced.
The military council declared martial law in Mandalay Region on Monday, but analysts questioned whether the junta has the troop strength to hold the city given mounting losses.