In the Battle of Donbass, the Russian armed forces are apparently increasingly concentrating on capturing critical infrastructure.

The British Ministry of Defense said in its situation report on Thursday, citing its secret services, that troops were approaching Ukraine's second largest power plant, in Wuhlehirsk.

At the same time, forces tried to intensify their advances in the direction of the two cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.

The headquarters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass is located there.

The Russian military confirmed shelling of targets in the south and east of the country.

Lorenz Hemicker

Editor in Politics

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Western experts doubt that the Russian armed forces will be able to gain large amounts of ground in the coming weeks.

The major territorial goals announced by Moscow's leadership are a far cry from the "slow and grueling reality of recent Russian operations in Ukraine," researchers at the American War Research Institute write in their latest report.

With its offensive in the Donbass, the Russian side could still achieve "limited additional gains of territory" in the coming weeks.

According to the report, despite their numerical superiority, they lack the power to capture larger inhabited areas in the Donetsk region.

In the past few weeks, the troops have hardly been able to make any significant advances.

In battles for small, relatively insignificant towns, they continued to lose combat effectiveness.

Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian information, danger is looming in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops: The occupiers stored heavy military technology, ammunition and explosives in a turbine block of the power plant, which contains highly flammable lubricants, according to the Ukrainian company Energoatom.

In the past few days, Ukrainian forces had attacked Russian positions near the power plant. 

The American secret services assume that the Russian side has now recorded around 15,000 casualties.

Add to that the number of wounded "perhaps three times as many," CIA Director William Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

These are "considerable losses" for the Russian side.

Ukraine has probably suffered "slightly fewer" casualties, but has also suffered significant losses.

Current official figures are not published by either warring party.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry countered the impression that the government could work with the United States to resolve the conflict beyond Kyiv.

You are not negotiating with the US about a possible peace solution, she said.

There was no contact between the two countries on this issue.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov also countered speculation about President Vladimir Putin's health that has been going on for months.

According to Peskow, the president is not ill and that these are "nothing but false reports".

As a result of a hacker attack, false news was spread on Ukrainian radio stations on Thursday that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in the intensive care unit of a hospital.

Selenskyj reacted with a short video, 

Great Britain meanwhile announced that it would deliver numerous other weapon systems to Ukraine.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, hundreds of drones, anti-tank weapons and artillery pieces are to be delivered in the coming weeks.

A reconnaissance radar and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition for Soviet artillery pieces are also to go to the Ukrainians.