The Russian army consolidates its advance in northeastern Ukraine

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 which illustrates kyiv’s difficulties in containing enemy troops.

“Units of the +West+ troop grouping 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 obstacle 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.

The Kremlin troops are in particular 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 eastern Donetsk region, 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.

Three Ukrainian civilians killed

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 Russian President Vladimir Putin, while declaring on Monday that the latter was “destroying” his country by refusing to seal a peace agreement.

On Tuesday, he deemed new sanctions “likely” if Moscow does not negotiate and assured that the United States would “look into” continuing military aid to kyiv.

At the same time, air attacks on Moscow continue. The Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday it had shot down 65 Russian drones in 10 regions of the country, including Kharkiv.

In this same region, authorities reported the same day that a civilian car was targeted on Tuesday by an FPV drone attack, a small explosive drone, killing its two occupants.

Another attack on Wednesday in the neighboring region of Donetsk (east) killed one civilian and injured seven others, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

“In the space of 15 minutes, the enemy carried out nine airstrikes on the town” of Kostiantynivka, damaging administrative and private buildings, as well as electric cables and gas pipes, the prosecutor’s office said on Telegram.