Russian forces are advancing into Ukraine at the fastest pace since the first days of their invasion in February 2022, capturing hundreds of square kilometers over the past month, according to accurate information.
The war appears to be entering its most dangerous phase, according to Russian and Western officials, after Russian forces recorded significant territorial gains and the United States allowed Kiev to use American-made missiles to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
Last week, Russian forces captured almost 235 square kilometers, a weekly record for 2024, he explained.
The Russian military also took control of 600 square kilometers during November, according to data from DeepState, a group with close ties to the Ukrainian military that examines combat footage and maps from the front.
What happened after the Ukrainian attack on Kursk
Russia began advancing at a faster pace in eastern Ukraine in July, shortly before the Ukrainian army launched a surprise attack on the Russian Kursk region, taking control of some territory. Since then, the Russian advance has accelerated, according to maps from open sources.
Russian forces are advancing towards the Ukrainian city of Kurakhove, which is not far from Pokrovsk, a logistical hub in the Donetsk region, and are exploiting the weaknesses of the Ukrainian army on the front, analysts note.
“Russian forces have been advancing at a significantly faster pace recently than in all of 2023,” analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a report.
The Ukrainian military’s general staff said in a briefing yesterday that 45 battles of varying intensity were raging on the front line in Kurakhove yesterday.
“Russia’s advances in southeastern Ukraine are largely the result of identifying and exploiting the weaknesses of Ukrainian forces,” the Institute for the Study of War explained.
Russia stresses that it will achieve all its goals in Ukraine regardless of what the West says or does.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that peace will not be achieved until all Russian forces are expelled from Ukrainian territory and all territories occupied by Russia, including Crimea, are returned to Ukraine.
Zelensky has estimated that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal is to seize all of Donbass—which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions—and push Ukrainian forces back from Kursk.
But the Ukrainian army, numerically smaller than the Russian one, is struggling to recruit new members and equip new units.
