Arya News - Russia is rapidly making gains on the front line in Ukraine while stalling talks to end the war, research has revealed.
Russia is rapidly making gains on the front line in Ukraine while stalling talks to end the war, research has revealed.
The Kremlin’s army seized 200 square miles of territory in November, up from 100 square miles the previous month, according to DeepState, a trusted Ukraine -based battlefield map.
Russia is now gaining land at one of its fastest rates since the war began almost four years ago, the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, also said.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has said he will seize the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine either by force or through negotiation.
A plan to end the war, drawn up with Donald Trump’s administration, involved Ukraine handing over vast tracts of land. Ukraine and Europe have rejected the proposals .
The gains are likely to help persuade Mr Trump that peace should be set on Russia’s terms, and that sending weapons and aid to Kyiv is a waste.
On Saturday night, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said he had a “long and substantive phone call” with Steve Witkoff, the White House’s Russia envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law who is assisting the negotiations.
Shortly after the call, Putin launched a deadly missile and drone barrage aimed at Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure, including train stations.
Vladimir Putin wants to seize the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine - Getty Images
European leaders have been scrambling as support for Ukraine wanes and the Trump administration turns its attention away from the conflict.
On Monday, Sir Keir Starmer will host Mr Zelensky for the latest round of emergency talks at Downing Street, alongside Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor.
The hastily arranged summit appears to be an attempt to ensure Ukraine is not “betrayed” during the US-led peace process with Russia – a fear Mr Macron alluded to earlier this week.
The long-term US position was laid out in stark detail on Friday in Mr Trump’s National Security Strategy report, which accused Europe of blocking peace in Ukraine.
It also tweaked language from previous versions of the document by dropping wording that described Russia as a direct threat.
Moscow welcomed the changes , saying the adjustments were “largely consistent” with its own vision.
‘No immediate collapse’
In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced on several fronts. Pokrovsk, a former rail and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine , looks poised to fall imminently after a long and costly battle, while its nearby town of Myrnohrad is close to being encircled.
After Ukraine deployed some of its best brigades and drone units to hold Pokrovsk, Russian forces have been able to stretch Kyiv’s resources along the 630-mile front, opening up vulnerabilities in the south-east and further north.
As a result, Moscow has made steady gains in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and is close to capturing the northeastern city of Kupiansk, a vital stronghold that has been under attack for two years.
Anti-drone nets line a road, near the city of Izium in eastern Ukraine, on Sunday - ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live News
However, the data appear worse than the reality on the battlefield, said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group.
“There have been no grand breakthroughs… no immediate collapse of the Ukrainian front lines at the moment,” he told The Telegraph. “Russia has been unable to decisively break the front in any direction.”
Referring to Russia’s recent advances in the south-east, he argued that if Ukraine had to lose land, that would be the preferred place.
“Russia would have to have a huge amount more success to achieve something significant there; it has just captured small village after small village and many fields. These developments do not endanger the whole front for now,” Mr Kastehelmi added.
Advance expected to slow
Analysts believe it could still take Russia several years to take the rest of the Donbas – the prize Putin most seeks and which is heavily protected by the “fortress cities” of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
As winter sets in, the rate of Russia’s advance is expected to slow. And yet, in a signal to Washington, Putin has ordered the Russian military to prepare for winter combat – suggesting he will not soften his territorial demands.
Russia, which controls 19.2 per cent of Ukraine, is demanding Kyiv surrender the entire Donbas region, according to the peace plan co-authored by Washington and Moscow last month. It also wants Ukraine to be banned from joining Nato and to significantly reduce its military.
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The proposals provoked uproar in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe, which together lobbied for a watered-down alternative proposal which was rejected by Putin last week, leaving talks once more at an impasse.
On Sunday, Russia’s defence ministry claimed control of two villages: Kucherivka in the Kharkiv region and Rivne in Donetsk.
The Telegraph was unable to independently verify Russia’s most recent claimed advances, and Ukraine has not yet commented, but it follows confirmed advances in both regions.
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