Russia claimed Wednesday the capture of the village of Zapadne, in the Kharkiv region (north-east), a new advance on the western bank of the Oskil River and an illustration of kyiv’s difficulties in containing enemy troops.
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“Units of the “West” troop group liberated the town of Zapadne in the Kharkiv region,” said the Russian Defense Ministry, whose forces are advancing in several parts of this area and the Eastern Front.
Russian forces managed to establish a bridgehead at the beginning of January by crossing the Oskil, a river in eastern Ukraine and a natural barrier which separated the positions of the two camps in this sector. They opened the way for an assault on the western part of the Kharkiv region, from which the Russian army had been driven out in the fall of 2022.
In particular, Kremlin troops are only a few kilometers from Kupiansk, a town which had around 25,000 inhabitants before the war and which constitutes the main Ukrainian stronghold in this area.
Kyiv’s forces are also struggling in the east, particularly around Pokrovsk, a key city for military logistics and the coal industry.
-The Russian army is only a handful of kilometers from Pokrovsk, occupying the southern and eastern flanks of the city, and is also pushing west towards the neighboring region of Dnipropetrovsk and its capital Dnipro.
If Russian forces entered this region, it would be a first since the assault on Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.
For weeks, speculation about possible talks to end the conflict has been increasing, against a backdrop of questions about the position that American President Donald Trump will adopt, while the United States is the main provider of military aid and financial in Kyiv.
Moscow and Kyiv, which occupies a small part of the Russian region of Kursk, are seeking to strengthen their positions while waiting to know the intentions of Donald Trump, who has said he wants to quickly end the conflict, without putting forward a concrete plan.
Since taking office on January 20, he has confirmed that he wants to speak with Vladimir Putin, while declaring on Monday that the Russian president was “destroying” his country by refusing to seal a peace agreement.
On Tuesday, he judged new sanctions “likely” if Moscow does not negotiate and assured that the United States would “look into” continuing military aid to Kyiv.
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