Ukrainian Troops Likely Within Striking Distance of Key Road: U.K.

Moscow will be concerned at the extent of the advance of Ukraine's forces which are bearing down on Luhansk province, according to British defense officials.

The Ministry of Defense (MOD) said on Wednesday that Kyiv's troops had advanced 12 miles beyond the Oskil river in the northeastern Kharkiv region and were heading into Russia's defensive zone towards the town of Svatove in Luhansk.

"It is highly likely that Ukraine can now strike the key Svatove-Kremina road with most of its artillery systems, " the assessment said, a move that would further strain Russia's ability to resupply its units in the east.

"Politically, Russian leaders will highly likely be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are now approaching the borders of Luhansk Oblast," the ministry added.

This would pose a problem for Putin, who has just signed four laws ratifying Russia's claimed annexation of the region, along with the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment on the daily assessment which emphasizes Moscow's losses and Kyiv's gains.

But the MOD's conclusions chime with those made by the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). It outlined on Tuesday how Ukrainian gains in eastern Kharkiv Oblast, west of Svatove, had pushed past the Oskil River, threatening Russian positions in Luhansk.

The ISW also said Ukraine's forces were "crippling Russian attempts to transfer additional ammunition, reserves, mobilized men, and means of defense to frontline positions."

It comes as a Russian Telegram channel said on Wednesday that Snihurivka, in the southern Kherson oblast, or province, where fighting has been ongoing, had been taken by Ukrainian forces.

The military blog, Military Land.net, had said earlier that Ukrainian troops were on their way towards the city of Kherson as they continued to make gains in the region of the same name, and recaptured several towns.

(Source: Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project.)

Kremlin-backed media have engaged in soul searching over Ukraine's latest gains, such as the liberation of the city of Lyman. Russian war reporter Roman Saponkov described on his Telegram channel on Tuesday how Moscow's retreat in the Kherson region was a "disaster."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a series of images on social media of the ruined city of Lyman describing how "all basics of life have been destroyed here."

"They are doing so everywhere in the territories they seize," Zelensky wrote, "this can be stopped in one way only—liberate Ukraine, life, humanity, law and truth as soon as possible."