Russian forces, which President Vladimir Putin ordered into Ukraine in February 2022, advanced in September at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia's Kursk region.
The thrust of the Russian advance over recent months has been in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, over which Putin says he wants to gain full control.
A new threat has emerged – the malign alliance between Russia and North Korea. I am grateful to the leaders and representatives of nations who refuse to turn a blind eye and speak openly about this dangerous collaboration aimed at increasing the scale of the war. About the supply… — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) pic.twitter.com/3k70A8T7AFOctober 20, 2024
In recent weeks, Russia has surrounded towns in Donetsk region and then slowly constricted them until Ukrainian units are forced to withdraw. According to bloggers they are doing the same to Selydove, which had a pre-war population of over 20,000.
"Street by street fighting is going on in the town," according to Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger.
"The assault on Selydove has intensified."
Other pro-Russian bloggers published video of intensive shelling of Selydove. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage. The Russian defence ministry did not comment.
The General Staff of Ukraine's military, in a late evening report on Sunday, said Ukrainian forces had repelled 41 Russian attacks around several towns and villages, including Selydove. The report said four battles were still raging in the area.
The popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState showed Selydove to be in Ukrainian hands.
Russia controls about 80 per cent of the Donbas, and is pushing westwards along about 100km of the 1200-km front around the tactically important towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
Russian forces hold about one-fifth of Ukraine and 60 per cent of the Donetsk region. (AP PHOTO)
The two-and-a-half-year-old Ukraine war is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Russian forces advance and the West ponders how the war will end.
Ukraine wants NATO membership, a step that Russia has said would be unacceptable. The United States and key NATO powers have not publicly endorsed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call for an immediate NATO-membership invitation.
Russian forces hold about one-fifth of Ukraine and control 98.5 per cent of the Luhansk region and 60 per cent of the Donetsk region. The two regions make up the Donbas, the cradle of the war.
After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian protests broke out in parts of the Donbas, where Moscow began supporting separatist forces.
