Russia makes gains in southern Ukraine as it expands front-line attacks

The Russian army overran three settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Kyiv's top military commander said Wednesday, as Moscow's forces expand their efforts to capture more Ukrainian territory.

Dense fog enabled Russian troops to infiltrate Ukrainian positions in Zaporizhzhia, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on the messaging app Telegram, adding that Ukrainian units are locked in “gruelling battles” to repel the Russian thrust.

He noted, however, that the fiercest battles are still in the besieged Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, where close to half of all front-line clashes took place over the previous 24 hours.

The cities of Kupiansk and Lyman in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region have also recently witnessed an uptick in combat.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour almost four years ago and now occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian land. New US sanctions that take aim at Russia's oil sector, which is the mainstay of the Russian economy, are due to come into force on Nov. 21. Their purpose is to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire.

Kyiv officials, meanwhile, risk being distracted by a growing corruption scandal engulfing senior members of the government. Ukraine's Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko was suspended from his post on Wednesday after being placed under investigation, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced.

Russian gains come at a cost

The US sanctions on Russia's biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, raise the stakes for Putin. The Russian leader has so far avoided serious top-level peace negotiations, with Ukrainian and Western officials accusing him of stalling for time while his army tries to grab more Ukrainian territory. International peace efforts have come to nothing.

Russia's bigger and better-equipped army has scaled up its attacks, placing the short-handed Ukrainian military under severe strain. Ukrainian officials said in September that the front line has grown in length to nearly 1,250 kilometres. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia had deployed around 1,70,000 troops in Donetsk.

Over the past four weeks, the Russian Defence Ministry has reported capturing nine settlements and villages in Donetsk: eight in the Zaporizhzhia region, seven in the Dnipropetrovsk region and five in the Kharkiv region.

Russia's corrosive war of attrition has been costly in terms of casualties and armour, however, and Ukraine has held it to incremental battlefield gains.

The Institute for the Study of War said Russia's siege of Pokrovsk, where it has deployed elite drone operators and “spetsnaz” special forces soldiers, has been slow-moving because its military commanders are spreading their resources widely.

Russia is pursuing several offensive operations across the theatre simultaneously and is having difficulty extending logistical operations, the Washington-based think tank said late Tuesday.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has launched sustained long-range drone attacks on high-value military-related assets inside Russia.

Its latest assault hit the Stavrolen chemical plant in Budionnovsk, in the Stavropol region of Russia, overnight, according to the general staff. The plant produces polymers for composite materials used by the Russian military, it said.