Russia reports battlefield advances

KYIV- As Kyiv describes the situation there as difficult and demanded faster military assistance ahead of a predicted Russian offensive, Russia said on Wednesday that its troops had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defenses on the eastern front.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the Ukrainians had fled the Luhansk region after Russian attacks, but it gave no further details, and Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report from the battlefield. The ministry posted on the messaging app Telegram that “during the offensive, the Ukrainian troops retreated at random to a distance of up to 3 km (1.9 miles) from the previously occupied lines.” “Even the enemy’s second, more heavily fortified line of defense was unable to stop the Russian military’s advance.”

The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported that while Ukrainian forces had thwarted some Russian assaults in Luhansk, “the situation in the region remains difficult.” In recent weeks, the Kremlin has stepped up its attacks across a large portion of southern and eastern Ukraine, and a significant new offensive has long been anticipated. In the province of Donetsk, close to Luhansk, the town of Bakhmut has been the focus of most of Russia’s efforts. In its routine morning update, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not mention any significant setbacks in Luhansk. According to the report, Ukrainian forces thwarted attacks near more than 20 settlements, including Bakhmut and Vuhledar, a town 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Bakhmut.