MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month, analysts and war bloggers said on Tuesday.
Russian troops had been pushed back to their east and south in Ukraine, but have now resumed their advance, capturing 600 square kilometers in November and 235 square kilometers in the past week. The 1,000 km front line has been largely static for two years, until the latest smaller-scale advances that began in July.
The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its most dangerous phase, with Russia reported to be using North Korean troops in Ukraine and Kyiv now using Western-supplied missiles to strike back inside Russia.
Moscow used a hypersonic intermediate-range missile on Ukraine last week, and Ukraine reported the biggest Russian drone attack on its territory so far on Tuesday. Russia’s Defence Ministry reported the capture of another village, Kopanky, in Kharkiv region, while Ukraine’s forces said they had cleared the village of Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian media quoted a spokesperson for the Khortytsya group of troops as saying Kyiv’s forces had repelled a Russian advance on the logistical centre of Kupiansk, for the second time this month.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russian forces are advancing more effectively, and that Russia will achieve all its aims in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he believes Putin’s main objectives are to occupy the Donbas and oust Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine now holds around 800 of the 1,376 square kilometers of Kursk that it held initially, and said it will hold it “for as long as is militarily appropriate”.
