Russian advances on the front line have accelerated since September Photo / Russian Defence Ministry Press Service
Russian advances on the front line have accelerated since September Photo / Russian Defence Ministry Press Service
Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at their fastest rate since the start of the war, capturing an area half the size of London in one month.
Agentstvo, a Russian news agency, estimated the Kremlin’s forces had captured almost 150sq km in the past week and 373sq km altogether in November.
“Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of the occupied territory in Ukraine,” it said.
These estimates for November reinforce a trend of accelerated Russian advances on the front line since September.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, has ordered his forces to intensify their attacks ahead of possible peace talks Donald Trump has said he wants to impose as soon as he is sworn in as US President in January.
Although Russian forces have captured more ground in the past few weeks, it has come at a terrible cost.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces to intensify their attacks ahead of possible peace talks Donald Trump has said he wants to impose as soon as he is sworn in as US President in January.
The latest assessment by Ukrainian intelligence officials is that Russia is losing 1500 soldiers every day, dead or badly injured.
Russian tactics are little changed from World War II, relying on swarm infantry charges to overwhelm Ukrainian defenders.
Ukrainian soldiers have described waves of Russian infantry attacks marching into their guns, backed up by regular volleys of artillery shelling.
The main thrust of the Russian attacks has been in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, towards the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in the southern section of the front line.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces found “vulnerabilities” in this section they are now exploiting.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, has described the military situation in the southern Donetsk region as “the most challenging” and said there were “efforts underway to strengthen our positions”.
But Russian forces have also been advancing towards Kupyansk in the northern section of the front line and last week reportedly breached the city’s defences.
However, Sergey Markov, a pro-war Russian commentator, reported a Ukrainian counter-attack had pushed the Russian soldiers out of Kupyansk.
“The Russian army was forced to abandon the bridgehead that it unexpectedly captured a few days ago,” he said. “This indicates the intensity of the battles.”
Kupyansk straddles the Oskil River, considered a natural defensive line that runs north-south through the Kharkiv region to the Don River.
So important is the Oskil River that DeepState, a Ukrainian military blogger, said Russian forces had launched a surprise ambitious landing on the western bank.
“This is not just overcoming a water obstacle for the sake of a photo because the enemy has taken the positions held by one of our brigades,” it said.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said it had captured another village in the Kharkiv region. Kopanky lies to the southeast of Kupyansk. Its capture highlights Russian progress.
An analysis by the Meduza Russian language news website which opposes the war in Ukraine, said one of the Russian army’s most effective tactics was to attack in several different places at once, overstretching Ukrainian defenders.
“The armed forces of Ukraine still do not have enough forces to stop the Russian offensive in several directions at once. If it is possible to slow down the advance of the Russian armed forces in one area, a breakthrough in the neighbouring one immediately follows,” it reported.
It highlighted speedy advances by the Russian army by reporting on a breakthrough near Kurakhove that allowed the Russian army to advance by seven miles in one week, whereas “previously it took a year” to cover the same distance.
