Russians make fast progress in Ukraine as overstretched armies scramble to resist

Russia’s army has made fast progress in Ukraine over the past week, seizing 90 square miles of territory and making military advances at the fastest clip since invading its western neighbor nearly three years ago.

The gains in territory equal a territory roughly the size of four Manhattans, and have come amid intense saber-rattling following Ukraine’s multiple strikes on Russia with American-made missiles over the past week — moves that the Kremlin has claimed could start a nuclear war.

On the ground, Russian troops have finally moved into the key frontline town of Kurakhove in the war-torn Donetsk region, which the invader has bombarded for months.

As street battles erupted in the shattered city, the forces of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin have continued to slam Ukraine’s increasingly thin army with artillery and glide bombs, reports the British newspaper The Times.

“The front is crumbling,” Stanislav Bunyatov, a Ukrainian platoon commander, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine lacked enough troops, artillery shells and drones to hold off the Russians, he explained, which could lead to the city’s fall.

Russian military bloggers have also posted recordings of what appears to be their troops in the center of the town.

If they succeed in capturing Kurakhove, the door could swing open for the Russians to take over Zaporizhzhia next, a major city 90 miles west with a population of 700,000 prior to the war.

Putin has claimed that Zaporizhzhia belongs to Russia.

His armies have also incessantly attacked the city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub to the north, while at the same time retaking almost half of the territory the Ukrainians seized in Russia’s Kursk region over the summer, a senior military official told Reuters.

“Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of the occupied territory in Ukraine,” wrote Russian anti-war website Agentstvo, which the Kremlin has banned.

Taken together, this series of mishaps has led to some of the darkest days of the war.

“These are some of the toughest times we’ve faced, even worse than the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion,” Ukrainian defense analyst Serhiy Zgurets told a media outlet in Kyiv.

The victories on the ground have likely steeled Russia’s spine and buttressed their insistence that they’ll continue the invasion until they accomplish their goals. Putin defined those goals in June, when he declared that the only path to peace is for Ukraine to surrender all its territory that Russia has laid claim to and renounce its intention to join NATO.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service in Moscow, said their forces wouldn’t pull out of Ukraine unless the neighboring nation acquiesced to the Russian dictator’s demands.

“Russia categorically rejects any freezing of the conflict,” Naryshkin said, and alleged that Western nations are only pushing for a handshake deal because they recognize that Russia is “winning on all fronts.”

President-elect has famously promised to end the Ukraine War on “Day 1” of his presidency by brokering a deal with both countries. He tapped retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Wednesday, who he believes will help bring the nearly three-year conflict to a close.