Russia advancing in Ukraine at fastest pace since start of war

Russia’s army has made its biggest monthly advance in Ukraine since the early days of its full-scale invasion, analysts have said, with its troops entering a key frontline town in the Donetsk region.

The gains came as Russia vowed a fresh response to new Ukrainian strikes on its territory with US-supplied missiles, something the Kremlin has warned could spark a nuclear war, as one of President Putin’s top allies said Moscow had no interest in a ceasefire.

Putin’s forces have seized more than 90 square miles of territory over the past week, and an area about half the size of London this month, deploying artillery and glide bombs to pummel Ukraine’s overstretched army, according to data published by DeepState, a Ukrainian monitoring group.

Street battles are reported to have erupted in Kurakhove, a town Russia has been bombarding for months, after the Kremlin’s troops broke through Ukrainian lines. Drone footage published by Russian military bloggers showed what appeared to be Russian forces entering the centre of the town. Many residents have fled while those who remain eke out a living amid shattered buildings and frequent rocket attacks.

“The front is crumbling,” Stanislav Bunyatov, a Ukrainian platoon commander, wrote on Telegram. He said Kurakhove was at risk of falling because Kyiv’s forces lacked sufficient numbers of troops, artillery shells and drones. He also said corruption was hindering Ukraine’s efforts to drive back Putin’s army.

Russia’s capture of Kurakhove could see its forces push on towards Zaporizhzhia, a major city about 90 miles to the west. Putin has said that Zaporizhzhia, which had a pre-war population of 700,000, belongs to Russia.

The seizure of Kurakhove would also aid the Kremlin’s efforts to take control of Pokrovsk, a vital logistics hub 20 miles to the north. Pokrovsk has been pounded relentlessly by advancing Russian troops in recent weeks. Putin’s forces are also moving towards Velyka Novosilka, a key village in the southern Donetsk region.

“Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of the occupied territory in Ukraine,” wrote Agentstvo, a Russian anti-war website that has been banned by the Kremlin.

In a further blow for Ukraine, its forces have lost more than 40 per cent of the territory they seized in August in western Russia’s Kursk region, a senior military official told Reuters. Thousands of North Korean soldiers have boosted Putin’s army as it tries to expel Ukrainian troops.

“These are some of the toughest times we’ve faced, even worse than the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion,” Serhiy Zgurets, a Ukrainian defence analyst, told Espreso TV, a Kyiv-based media outlet.

Russia said on Tuesday that Ukrainian strikes with American ATACMS missiles on the Kursk region had damaged an S-400 defence system and hit a military airbase. The attacks caused an unspecified number of casualties, it said. It is extremely rare for Moscow to admit that its forces have been hit by Ukrainian aerial attacks. “Retaliatory actions are being readied,” the Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram.

The Kremlin responded last week to Ukraine’s use of American and British long-range missiles inside Russia by launching an experimental hypersonic ballistic missile at Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine. The attack was condemned by Ukraine and the West as a dangerous escalation in the conflict. Putin also threatened to strike American and British military facilities. His warning came shortly after Moscow lowered its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

Russia launched almost 190 drones at Ukraine on Monday night, as well as four Iskander-M ballistic missiles. Officials in Kyiv said the assault was the biggest drone assault since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It was unclear if there were any casualties, but Ukrainian officials said critical infrastructure was damaged, including the power grid in Ternopil, a major city in western Ukraine. Much of the region was left without electricity after the attack.

In Moscow, Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, said that Russia would not withdraw its troops from Ukraine unless Kyiv agreed to Putin’s demands. The Russian leader said in June that peace was only possible if Ukraine surrendered all its territories claimed by Russia and renounced any ambitions to join Nato, an ultimatum that was rejected by Kyiv.

“Russia categorically rejects any freezing of the conflict,” Naryshkin said. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, has vowed to force Russia and Ukraine to “make a deal” when he enters office in January, but has not explained how.