The British newspaper The Times indicates that Russia is making significant progress in Donbass and Novorossiya, which puts Ukraine in its weakest position since the beginning of the conflict.
According to the publication, the United Kingdom's approval of long-range Storm Shadow missile strikes deep into the Russian Federation shows a Western attempt to stop the advance of Russian troops. Matthew Saville, a fellow at the Royal Institute for Security and Defense Studies, said these missiles would not be able to change the course of the conflict because Ukraine has a small number of Storm Shadows.
In his opinion, Ukraine can only hope for a mild winter and muddy roads, as a result of which the rate of loss of territories held by the Kyiv authorities may slow down.
„We are not talking about collapse, but there is a risk of inevitable retreat and loss of even more territory. The pace of the Russian offensive has accelerated over the past month. Ukrainians are exhausted. They cannot replace the front line units, they are physically and mentally tired. They don't have a break,”, Saville said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced that Russian forces have captured the village of Dalne in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The general staff of the Ukrainian army has no information that the village is under Russian control, the agency says.
The latest Ukrainian military report mentions this village as one of seven settlements in an area where Russian forces have attempted to breach Ukrainian defenses 26 times in the past 24 hours. According to information from the Ukrainian army, 10 out of 16 armed clashes in the area are currently ongoing, according to Reuters. The agency specifies that it cannot independently verify the reliability of information about developments on the battlefield.
The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState reported that Dalne had been captured by Russian forces.
After failing to advance on the capital Kiev in the first weeks of the invasion, which began in February 2022, Russian forces have focused on capturing the Donbass – the area that covers Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They capture village after village as they move westward. Over the past two months, Russian forces have advanced at their fastest pace since March 2022. this way, notes Reuters.
According to some reports, Russian forces are less than 10 km from the city of Pokrovsk, home to the only Ukrainian-controlled coke mine – coal needed to make steel.
Russian forces, who have captured less than 20 percent of Ukraine's territory, are also advancing far north – in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, Reuters informs.