Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov attends a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in Saint Petersburg
Reuters: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday that Russian forces had accelerated their advance in the north-east of Ukraine and had ground down the Ukrainian army's best units there.
Belousov was shown in a Defence Ministry video visiting a Russian command post in Ukraine manned by the Russian army grouping "North" where he handed out medals for bravery.
"This work we have done here now has crushed the best (Ukrainian) units. Now the advance has accelerated. We have thwarted their entire 2025 campaign," said Belousov.
Russian forces, who hold a little less than 20% of Ukraine's territory, have made advances on the logistics town of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region and have been advancing in the last two months at various frontline points at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data.
In World
-
Protests broke out on Tuesday in several predominantly Christian neighborhoods of Damascus after a video circulated online showing a group of people burning a Christmas tree near Hama in central Syria, according to Western media reports.
-
U.S. President Joe Biden is considering imposing fresh sanctions on Russia’s energy sector during the closing weeks of his presidency, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing four sources. The potential measures have been described by the newspaper as a “farewell blow to Putin’s war chest.”
-
Syrian de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa reached an agreement with former heads of rebel groups on Tuesday to dissolve their factions and integrate them under the Ministry of Defense, according to a statement from the newly formed administration in Damascus.
-
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted on Monday for the first time publicly to Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July, further risking tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon.
Leave a review