Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky says Putin’s war can be stopped in 2025 as Kyiv destroys 400 Russian drones

Ukrainian troops can hold their captured territory in Russia’s Kursk for several months, senior US officials said, citing their latest intelligence assessment.

Kyiv’s hold on the territory hinges on the reliable flow of supplies into the region and Russia’s focus on advances in eastern Ukraine, the officials told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian troops are now receiving a steady supply of shells after facing months of dire ammunition shortages, the officials said.

In the past three days, Ukrainian and Russian forces continued assaults in Glushkovsky Raion west of the main Ukrainian salient in Kursk but did not make any confirmed advances, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Russia has claimed further advances in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk as fears spread Moscow could capture a key city in the area.

The Russian defence ministry has claimed Moscow’s forces have captured the settlements of Zolota Nyva and Zhelanna Pershe.

The communities have an estimated population of a few hundred residents each but they lie to the north and south of the town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of military activity on the eastern front.

The Russian military is looking to make significant advances on the battlefield before muddy ground conditions in the autumn set in, a US-based think-tank has said.

“The Russian military command has likely ordered Russian forces to conduct a relatively high tempo of mechanised assaults in Ukraine to pursue significant tactical advances before muddy ground conditions in fall 2024 constrain mechanised manoeuvres,” the Institute for the Study of War said.

“Poor weather conditions in fall 2024 and early winter 2024-2025 will likely complicate and constrain both mechanised and infantry manoeuvres, but Russian forces may seek to maintain their consistent offensive pressure in eastern Ukraine despite these difficulties.

“A Russian milblogger claimed on 9 October that muddy seasonal conditions have already started in Kursk oblast and are constraining manoeuvre for wheeled vehicles,” it said.

Russian officials evacuated the village of Rodnikovy in southern Adygeya Republic region due to a fire after a drone attack, regional officials said.

Region head Murat Kumpilov said the attack targeted the suburbs of the city of Maykop and there were no casualties. The Khanskaya military air base is located near the city.

Ukraine’s military said it struck a Russian weapons arsenal, including those Russia got from North Korea, in the Bryansk region.

The Institute for the Study of War cited Ukrainian military officials as saying that the facility stored glide bombs, missile and artillery systems, and North Korean- and Iranian-provided weapons.

Nato allies could have averted Russia’s full-scale invasion by arming Ukraine in 2014, former Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said.

“I continue to believe that if we had armed Ukraine more after 2014, we might have prevented Russia from invading — at least we would have increased the threshold for a full-scale invasion,” he told Politico.

A staunch ally of Kyiv, Mr Stoltenberg expressed regret at the end of his term over the alliance’s insufficient response to Russian aggression in 2014, which included the illegal occupation of Crimea.

“I worked hard to try to convince Nato allies to do more, to provide more military support, more training,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

“Some allies did, but it was relatively limited, and that was very difficult for many years because the policy in Nato was that Nato should not provide lethal support to Ukraine,” he added.

“If we had delivered a fraction of the weapons we have delivered after 2022, we may have actually prevented the war,” Mr Stoltenberg said.