Ukraine war: Russia steps up intensity in conflict as troops attempt to encircle major Donetsk city
Russia has stepped up its offensive in Ukraine, with officials suggesting Vladimir Putin’s troops have taken control of an area outside the major city of Bakhmut.
According to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “everything is completely destroyed, there is almost no life left”, in the Donetsk region, which includes the town of Soledar.
“The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes,” Mr Zelenskyy said. “This is what madness looks like.”
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Ukraine’s presidential office also said at least four civilians were killed, and another 30 were wounded, in Russian shelling between Monday and Tuesday.
In Mykolaiv in the south, Governor Vitaliy Kim said Russian troops had shelled the port of Ochakiv, and the surrounding area, overnight Monday into Tuesday, adding 15 people, including a two-year-old child, were wounded.
The Ministry of Defence said that in the last four days, Russian and Wagner forces (a private mercenary group) have made tactical advances into the small Donbas town of Soledar, and “are likely in control of most of the settlement”.
The ministry also said that Russia’s Soledar axis is “highly likely” an effort to envelop the eastern town of Bakhmut from the north, and to “disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication”.
“Despite the increased pressure on Bakhmut, Russia is unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes.”
Hanna Malyar, the deputy defence minister, said Russia has thrown “a large number of storm groups” into the battle.
“The enemy is advancing literally on the bodies of their own soldiers and is massively using artillery, rocket launchers and mortars, hitting their own troops,” she said.
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Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Donetsk region’s Kyiv-appointed governor, described the Russian attacks on Soledar and Bakhmut as relentless, adding: “The Russian army is reducing Ukrainian cities to rubble using all kinds of weapons in their scorched-earth tactics.
“Russia is waging a war without rules, resulting in civilian deaths and suffering.”
The Moscow appointed leader of the region, Denis Pushili, said on state television that Russian forces had almost captured Soledar, but the gains were coming “at a very high price”, adding the city would create “good prospects” for taking over nearby Bakhmut and Siversk.
There has been intense fighting in the east of Ukraine for several months, focussing on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia claims to control.
Those areas make up the Donbas, an industrial region that borders Russia which Vladimir Putin has identified as central to his war effort.
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Bakhmut, in Donetsk, is important to the Kremlin, as it would mean it controlled Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for its forces to move toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
The town has spent weeks without power and water, like other cities under siege, with the region’s governor estimating that 90% of the town’s pre-war population had fled.
In Russia, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said the military would use its experience in Ukraine to improve its combat training, adding communications and control systems will be upgraded with artificial intelligence, while troops will get better tactical gear and equipment.
Russian officials argue the country is not only fighting Ukraine, but also NATO, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that the bloc’s members “have become a party to the conflict, pumping weapons, technology and intelligence data into Ukraine”.
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
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The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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