Russian forces advanced into Ukraine at their fastest pace since the first months of the war and exploited the vulnerabilities of troops in Kiev, analysts said yesterday.

“Russian forces have recently advanced at a significantly faster pace than they did in all of 2023,” said analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

The report said recent Russian battlefield gains confirmed near Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka, which are in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and said Putin’s forces were moving into the strategic city of Kurakhove.

The Russian military captured nearly 235 square kilometers (91 square miles) in Ukraine in the past week, a weekly record for 2024, according to a report published by the independent Russian news group Agentstvo.

Agentstvo analyzed data from Deep State, a group with close ties to the Ukrainian military that studies combat footage and provides front-line maps.

“The advances of Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine are largely the result of the discovery and tactical exploitation of vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s lines,” ISW analysts said in their report.

In the summer of 2015, three Syrian girls who had narrowly survived an airstrike a few weeks earlier found themselves in front of Tulsi Gabbard with horrific burns all over their bodies. Gabbard, then a US congresswoman on a visit to the Syria-Turkey border as part of her foreign affairs committee duties, had a question for them.

“How do you know that Bashar al-Assad or Russia bombed you and not Isis?” she asked, according to Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian activist who was translating her conversation with the girls.

It was a revealing insight into Gabbard’s conspiratorial views on the conflict, and it shocked Moustafa into silence. He knew, as even small children did, that Isis had no planes to launch airstrikes. It was such an absurd question that he chose not to translate it because he didn’t want to upset the girls, the oldest of whom was 12.

“Since that time, I’m sorry to say that we were inaccurate in translating what she said,” Moustafa said. The Independent. “It was more like, How can I get these girls away from this devil?”

Even before Gabbard left the Democratic Party, settled for Donald Trump, and secured the nomination to become Director of National Intelligence, she was known as a prolific seller of Russian propaganda.

In almost every foreign conflict in which Russia has had a hand, Gabbard has supported Moscow and criticized the US. Her past promotion of Kremlin propaganda has caused significant opposition on both sides of the aisle to her nomination.

my colleagues Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg you have more analysis here:

Ukrainian boxing icon Wladimir Klitschko has criticized American podcast host Joe Rogan for promoting Russian propaganda.

“You talk about sending American weapons to Ukraine, which you think will lead to World War III. Putin’s Russia is in trouble, so Putin wants to scare you and people like you. His war was to last three days. It lasted three years thanks to the heroism and sacrifice of the Ukrainians,” said former heavyweight champion Klitschko at X.

His remarks come after Rogan on Friday criticized President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles, which he argued would trigger a third world war.

Mr. Klitschko also dared Rogan to invite him for a conversation.

Russia’s military has captured a British national fighting with Ukrainian troops who have seized part of Russia’s Kursk region, according to reports yesterday. The Briton was identified by state news agency Tass and other media as James Scott Rhys Anderson.

Tass quoted him as saying he served as a signals officer in the British Army for four years and then joined the Ukrainian International Legion, formed at the start of Russia’s nearly three-year war against its neighbor.

His capture would mark one of the first known cases of a Western national being captured on Russian soil while fighting for Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has signed a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transition is legal.

The Kremlin leader also approved legislation banning the spread of material encouraging people not to have children.

The bills, which were previously approved by both houses of the Russian parliament, follow a series of laws that have suppressed sexual minorities and upheld so-called traditional values.

The US has seen no signs of North Korean troops in Russian-held areas of Ukraine or moving in that direction, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told a briefing that the US Defense Department has “no indication that there are DPRK soldiers in Ukraine,” referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“I have no indication that there are DPRK soldiers in Ukraine. What I said is that, you know, what we’re seeing is that they’re positioned around the Kursk region, but you know, they’re not moving into Ukraine right now,” she said last night.

Europeans will increase military support for Ukraine, Germany’s defense minister vowed after talks with his British, French, Italian and Polish counterparts on how to bolster defense efforts as Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.

“Our aim must be to allow Ukraine to act from a position of strength,” Boris Pistorius told reporters in Berlin after hosting a meeting of the Group of Five nations, Europe’s defense leaders.

His remarks were echoed by Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who promised more aid to Kiev.

“Europe needs to coordinate its efforts more, it needs to harmonize its actions, it needs to aim higher, to also be a good partner for the United States,” he said.

“We are obliged today to say it clearly – Europe must step up its efforts when it comes to helping Ukraine, but especially… when it comes to its own security. Without higher spending, without awareness in every European society of the times we live in, everything is nothing,” he said.

The election of Mr Trump – who is skeptical of US support for Ukraine – added pressure on Europe to step up its role in arming Kiev if Washington, its biggest donor by far, cuts aid.

Kyiv is under sustained attack by Russian drones, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said today.

“The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the capital continues,” Klitschko said on his Telegram channel. “The air defense forces are operating in different areas of the city. (The drones) are entering the capital from different directions.”

Witnesses described a series of explosions in what sounded like air defense systems in operation, Reuters reported.

Kiev, the surrounding region and the vast majority of Ukrainian territory were under air raid alerts. In Kyiv, air raid sirens began around 19:00 GMT.