Vladimir Putin’s troops are likely to be seizing territory in north east Ukraine for the first time in weeks, British defence chiefs said on Tuesday.
Russian military units had been forced to retreat from around Ukraine’s second biggest city of Kharkiv following Ukrainian counter-attacks.
Some Ukrainian soldiers even reached the border with Russia.
But in its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “Russia’s operational main effort remains the assault against the Severodonetsk pocket in the Donbas and its Western Group of forces have likely made small advances in the Kharkiv sector for the first time in several weeks.”
Mr Putin’s military has killed hundreds of civilians in Kharkiv, according to Amnesty International, by bombarding the city with cluster munitions which are banned by many countries as their impact is so indiscriminate.
The Russian president’s lightning invasion plan, to seize Kyiv within days, failed and he has refocused his military campaign on capturing the eastern Donbas region.
His generals have learned from their early military blunders in the conflict and are now unleashing a strategy of destroying towns and cities with relentless bombardments before troops move forward to gradually seize ground.
They are believed to have destroyed the last bridge into the industrial city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk province of the Donbas, cutting off hundreds, if not thousands of civilians, as well as Ukrainian forces in parts of the city which are being heavily shelled.
Nations in the West have been accused by Kyiv of funding Mr Putin’s war machine by continuing to pay for Russian gas and oil.
The MoD intelligence update added: “On 10 June, the First Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Military Industrial Commission predicted that state defence spending will increase by 600-700 billion roubles (£8.5 -10 billion), which could approach a 20% increase in Russia’s defence budget.
“Russian government funding is allowing the country’s defence industrial base to be slowly mobilised to meet demands placed on it by the war in Ukraine.
“However, the industry could struggle to meet many of these requirements, partially due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise.
“Russia’s production of high-quality optics and advanced electronics likely remain troubled and could undermine its efforts to replace equipment lost in Ukraine.
