Fighting focuses on Donbas, but Putin has not given up on Kharkiv – or Kyiv

Civilians being evacuated from Sievierodonetsk last week as Russian artillery and missile strikes intensified. Photograph: Rick Mave/Rex

After three months of full-scale war against Ukraine, in which ground troops invaded from several directions and missiles hit targets across the country, right up to the western border with Poland, the focus of the current phase of the conflict is back on the region where Russia has been fighting Ukraine for the past eight years: Donbas.

Military analyst Michael Kofman wrote on Twitter last week: “The overall military balance in this war still trends in Ukraine’s favour, given manpower availability and access to extensive Western military support … But the local balance in the Donbas during this phase is a different story.”