Russia boosts troop numbers amid diplomatic efforts to secure a peace deal with Ukraine
Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered 160,000 men to be drafted into the Russian army – despite claiming he wants to find a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine.
While the political deal-making continues over the future of Ukraine, the war is still raging all along the 800-mile frontline, albeit with very little movement.
There are reports that the Russians are preparing to launch a spring offensive in the coming weeks.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Moscow is planning to attack the Sumy and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine.
If Moscow succeeds in taking more territory, analysts think Mr Putin could use it as leverage to impose even harsher conditions on any potential peace deal.
Russian military bloggers claim Moscow's forces are continuing to take back territory inside Kursk, saying Russian troops have reached the Sudzha checkpoint.
This is a key border post that Ukrainian troops seized from Russia when they launched their incursion last August.
If true, that could well mark the end of the Kursk operation.
Elements of Russia's 106th Airborne Division, which was also involved in the battle for Avdiivka, are also reportedly advancing into Sumy, expanding a salient into the north of the region.
Meanwhile Russian troops have continued attacking northwest of Kharkiv, trying to push the Ukrainians back so they can bring their artillery within range of the city.
Ukrainian drone strikes are reportedly preventing Russia from launching mechanised assaults on Kharkiv, but the city's population is suffering, with Moscow launching ballistic missiles and Shahed drones in urban areas.
In the latest attack, a military hospital and civilian buildings were hit.
Some reports say the Russians have changed their long-range drone tactics, holding Shaheds in a loitering pattern several miles from the target, before sending them all in simultaneously.
In the Luhansk region, the Russians are also attacking around Kupiansk, but again without any major gains.
Some Ukrainian reports say Moscow's forces are using 70-year-old T-55 tanks to move troops around, an indication of just how deeply Russia's tank stocks have been depleted by this war.
It is a similar picture in the Donetsk region, where Russian forces are continuing to attack around Chasiv Yar.
Fighting has also intensified around Toretsk, 20km southwest of Bakhmut, with the Russians making small advances.
After pummelling its defences with glide bombs, Russian forces now largely occupy the remains of this former mining town, a key position on high ground.
Intense fighting continues
Despite the setbacks, Ukrainian infantry is still fighting house-to-house, even downing a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft.
Another key town the Russians are trying to capture is Pokrovsk, a vital logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.
It straddles a major east-west highway used to supply the frontline.
The Russians have tried to encircle it from the south but so far have not succeeded.
If they do, the fear is that it would open the way for a Russian assault on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two biggest cities which Ukraine still controls in the eastern part of the Donetsk region.
The other major axis where Russians are assaulting is in the south, around Orikhiv in western Zaporizhzhia, where Ukraine launched its unsuccessful counteroffensive in the summer of 2023.
Russian bloggers claim Moscow is concentrating forces here on the outskirts of Kamyanske for a future assault against the settlement.
The prospect of talks, let alone a ceasefire, is having very little impact on Vladimir Putin's push for more Ukrainian territory.
Join Our Newsletter
