Russia is advancing in Ukraine at a rapid pace, encroaching on Kurakhove, analysts say

By Lidia Kelly and Oleksandr Kozhukhar

(Reuters) – Russian troops have been advancing into Ukraine at a rapid pace since the first months of the war, moving into the strategic city of Kurakhove and exploiting the weakness of Kyiv’s military, analysts said on Monday.

“The Russian military has recently been developing at the fastest pace since 2023,” analysts at the Washington-based Center for the Study of War said in a report.

The report noted the latest gains confirmed on the battlefield near Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops seized nearly 235 square kilometers (91 square miles) of Ukraine last week, a weekly record for 2024, according to a report published by Russia’s independent news group Agentstvo.

Agentstvo analyzed data from Deep State, a group with close links to the Ukrainian military that studies combat images and provides maps of the front.

A report by the Institute for the Study of War and pro-Russian military bloggers said that Russian soldiers in Kurakhove, standing at a stone facing the Pokrovsk transport hub in Donetsk. The Deep State said on its Telegram messaging system on Monday that Russian forces were close to Kurakhove.

Deep State data analyzed by Agentstvo showed that Russia occupied more territory in Ukraine since the beginning of November than in all of October, which saw the fastest pace since the first months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“The advance of Russian troops in southeastern Ukraine is mainly the result of the discovery and strategic exploitation of weaknesses in Ukrainian lines,” the analysts of the Institute for the Study of War said in their report.

Outnumbered by Russian troops, the Ukrainian military is struggling to recruit and equip new units, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy relentlessly appealing to Kyiv’s Western allies for more military aid.

Zelenskiy said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main goals were to take over the entire Donbas region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and drive Ukrainian forces out of Kursk region, where they have been controlling parts of that area since August.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)