Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion, seizing an area half the size of Greater London in the past month, analysts say and military bloggers.
The war in Ukraine is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its most dangerous phase, after Moscow made some of its biggest territorial gains and the United States allowed kyiv to strike the territory. Russian with long-range American missiles.
“New weekly and monthly records”
“Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of occupied territory in Ukraine”reported the independent newspaper Agentstvo. The Russian army captured almost 235 square kilometers in Ukraine over the past week, which is a weekly record for the year 2024, according to Agentstvo.
Russian forces seized 600 square kilometers in November, it adds, citing data from DeepState, an interactive map closely linked to the Ukrainian military that studies combat footage and provides information on the front line . Russia began advancing rapidly into eastern Ukraine in July, as Ukrainian forces seized part of Russia's Kursk border region.
Since then, the Russian advance has accelerated, according to open source maps. Russian forces are now moving towards the town of Kurakhove, a stopover towards Pokrovsk, in Donetsk oblast, and exploiting the vulnerabilities of kyiv's troops along the front line, analysts say.
“Russian forces have recently advanced at a significantly faster rate than in all of 2023”analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in a report. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an update Monday that 45 battles of varying intensity raged along the Kurakhove part of the front line that evening.
The report from the Institute for the Study of War and pro-Russian military bloggers claim that Russian troops are in Kurakhove. DeepState said on Telegram on Monday that Russian forces were near the city. “The advances of Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine are largely the result of the discovery and tactical exploitation of vulnerabilities in Ukrainian lines”indicate analysts from the Institute for the Study of War in their report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that peace cannot be established until all Russian forces are expelled and all territories captured by Moscow, including Crimea, are returned. Overwhelmed by Russian troops, the Ukrainian army is however having difficulty recruiting soldiers and equipping the new units.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin's main goals were to occupy the entire Donbass, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and to drive Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk region, which they have controlled certain parts since August.
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