Russia makes biggest advance in Ukraine since early days of the war, seizing an area half the size of London as Putin's forces launch artillery and bomb blitz

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Russian forces are advancing westward in Ukraine at a rate faster than any other time after the initial days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of London over the past month as the return of Donald Trump to the White House looms large.

Vladimir Putin's troops swept through swathes of Ukraine in early 2022 and were bearing down on Kyiv in a matter of days, but they were held on the outskirts of the capital before being pushed back and retreating further east. 

Since then, the 1,000 km (620-mile) front line remained largely static save for some minor offensives one way or the other - that is until Ukraine launched a lightning incursion into Russia's Kursk region this summer. 

Now though, Ukraine's valiant defenders are wilting under incessant pressure from Russian troops which have sustained a fearsome rate of artillery fire matched with glide bomb attacks and full-frontal assaults.

'Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of the occupied territory in Ukraine,' independent Russian news group Agentstvo said in a report this week. 

The Russian army captured almost 235 square kilometres (91 square miles) in Ukraine over the past week - a weekly record for 2024 - and had taken roughly 600 square kilometres (232 square miles) in November, the report claimed.

Those figures were largely supported by the US-based Institute for the Study of War, which put the amount of territory gained since November 1 at 574 square kilometres (221 square miles) - an average rate of 22 square kilometres per day.

The war is now entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its most dangerous phase weeks before Trump returns to the Oval Office amid fears he could dramatically reduce aid to Ukraine as he seeks to force a ceasefire deal.

North Korean troops are reported to be bolstering Moscow's forces and Kyiv is now using Western-supplied missiles to strike back inside Russia - a development that prompted Putin to unleash a never-before-seen 'Oreshnik' hypersonic missile last week. 

ussian servicemen jump off a T-90M Proryv tank during a combat training for assault units in an undisclosed location

Ukrainian servicemen of the 43 Artillery Brigade fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled cannon towards Russian positions at a front line in the Donetsk region

Firefighters remove debris after Russian missile attack on November 26, 2024 in Sumy, Ukraine

A handout photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry's official Telegram channel on 26 November 2024 shows the debris of the US made long-range ATACMS missile, reportedly used in attacks by Ukrainian forces and shot down in Russia's Kursk region

This photograph taken in Borodyanka, Kyiv region, on November 7, 2024, shows destroyed residential buildings, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The thrust of the Russian advance has been in Ukraine's Donetsk region, with Moscow's forces pushing towards the town of Pokrovsk and into the town of Kurakhove.  

Pokrovsk is widely cited as a key strategic location given that it serves as a vital logistics hub for Ukraine's Armed Forces. 

Russian war bloggers say that if Russia can pierce the Ukrainian defences around Kurakhove, they will be able to push westwards towards the city of Zaporizhzhia while securing their rear to allow a swing towards Pokrovsk. 

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, said on Tuesday that Russia held the complete strategic initiative on the battlefield.

He also added that Russia is open to negotiations but stated that the Kremlin would 'categorically reject' any 'freezing' of the current frontline, demanding that Ukraine relinquish areas of the four Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - that the Kremlin has illegally annexed without fully occupying. 

The past day saw Russia launch one of the biggest single drone attacks of the war so far, cutting power to much of the western region of Ternopil and damaging residential buildings in the Kyiv region.

But for all the fanfare over Putin's latest hypersonic missile and the devastation caused by large-scale drone attacks, most analysts argue the main driver preventing Kyiv's troops from successfully defending their territory is a lack of ammunition. 

Russia has increasingly encircled territory and then pummelled Ukrainian forces with artillery and glide bombs, according to Russian analysts, with the sheer numerical superiority of Moscow's artillery batteries and ammunition affording Putin's troops a significant advantage.

Russian artillery divisions can be deployed in more locations and can sustain a much higher rate of fire than their Ukrainian counterparts, helping to scupper Kyiv's counterattacks while softening up defensive positions. 

A recent report published by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and Open Source Centre estimated that Russian artillery attacks are responsible for some 70 per cent of Ukrainian casualties. 

Their research revealed that Russia's rate of artillery fire has averaged roughly 10,000 rounds per day since the early months of the war which saw peaks as high as 36,000 rounds per day. 

By contrast, Ukrainian fire rarely exceeded 6,000 and dropped below 1,800 rounds per day by early 2024. 

The RUSI report also surmised that sustaining such an outsized artillery and ammunition advantage is central to Russia's path to victory, concluding that it is essential for Western countries to provide Ukraine with considerably more ammunition to prevent Russia's advance.

'As of August 2024, the Russian theory of victory does not centre on major breakthroughs, but rather on the destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) as a force capable of defending the breadth (of the frontline),' the RUSI report read. 

'The Russian leadership likely believes it can kill its way out of the war, and artillery will be key to doing that. 

'So long as Russia maintains a substantial advantage in artillery systems, it can use tactics that will, over time, deplete the AFU of reserves – a critical vulnerability for Ukraine.'

An aerial view shows the destroyed city of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv Region near the border with Russia

A Ukrainian wounded serviceman who was brought back from positions is being treated by Ukrainian military doctors is prepared to be transported to a hospital, at a stabilisation point of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade, near the Kurakhove town's frontline

Security camera footage out of the central-eastern city of Dnipro showed several projectiles streaking in and detonating after Russia launched a new hypersonic missile yesterday

A grab taken from handout footage released by Russia's Defence Ministry on March 1 purports to show the test firing of an ICBM belonging to the country's nuclear deterrence forces

Though satellite imagery and intelligence reports allow researchers and analysts to assess the Russian advance with relative accuracy, battlefield reports from both sides consistently contradict one another. 

This morning, Russia's Defence Ministry reported the capture by its forces of another village, Kopanky, in Kharkiv region, another focus of Russian military activity north of the main theatre of fighting in Donetsk region.

But Ukraine's third separate assault brigade said it had cleared the village of Russian soldiers in a post on Telegram on Monday.

Ukrainian media quoted Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for the Khortytsya group of troops, as saying Kyiv's forces had repelled a Russian advance on the logistical centre of Kupiansk, also in Kharkiv region. 

It was the second time this month that the Ukrainian military reported rebuffing an attack on Kupiansk, even after Russian commanders said they had invaded the city two weeks ago. 

Putin has repeatedly said that Russian forces are advancing much more effectively now than earlier in the war and insisted that Russia will 'achieve all its aims' in Ukraine without specifying exactly what those are. 

Militarily, the goals of the so-called special military operation are generally seen as securing the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and ousting Ukrainian troops from Kursk. 

Russia controls 18% of Ukraine including all of Crimea and almost all of the Luhansk region.

However, Ukraine has managed to retain roughly 30-35% of the Donetsk region, as well as the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south.

A source on Ukraine's General Staff on Sunday said that Ukraine now held around 800 of the 1,376 square kilometres of Kursk that they held initially and would hold it 'for as long as is militarily appropriate'.

Putin is also adamant that Ukraine must remain a 'neutral state' that is not part of NATO. He claims that Western powers - particularly the US and UK - are fighting a war with Russia through Ukraine which he sees as a vassal state. 

A member of Ukraine's 72nd Brigade Anti-air unit fires at a Russian Zala reconnaissance drone over head on February 23, 2024 near Marinka, Ukraine

A view of destruction of the city of besieged Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine

Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region near the border with Russia

Injured Ukrainian soldiers are transferred on stretchers from ambulances to a military evacuation train to transport Ukrainian servicemen wounded in frontline areas to hospitals, in an undisclosed location

A mortar platoon soldier with an 82mm mortar performs a combat mission as Ukrainian soldiers hold their positions in bitter conditions

Neither Russia nor Ukraine publishes accurate data on their losses, though Western intelligence estimates casualties to number hundreds of thousands killed or injured, while swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine have turned into wastelands.

Ukraine has been struggling with deepening manpower shortages and is embroiled in an unpopular debate about how to bolster the military's ranks amid outrage over brutal incidents of civilians being press-ganged on the streets of Kyiv and other cities.

Secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council Oleksandr Lytvynenko told Parliament in late October that the army planned to recruit another 160,000 people in the coming months.

But Ukrainian military officials acknowledge the situation in the east is the worst now that it has been all year.

In an interview with former Ukrainian MP Borislav Bereza last month, Col-Gen Dmytro Marchenko said: 'I won't be revealing a military secret if I say that our front has crumbled.'

He went on to cast doubt on Volodymyr Zelensky's 'victory plan' for being too reliant on political, economic and military support from Western allies.

'This plan lacks any points addressing Ukraine or our needs,' Gen Marchenko added.

Zelensky has blamed the difficulties of his armed forces on several factors, including delays of up to a year in equipping brigades, partly because of the long time the US Congress took to sign off on a major Ukraine assistance package.