THE Russian army has advanced into Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian officials have admitted.

The region borders three that Russia has formally annexed — Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — though its military does not fully control any of them. Fighting in the villages of Novoheorhiivka and Zaporizke marks another westward step by the Russian army, one the Kremlin has said is intended to create a buffer zone around what it regards as Russian territory, similar to that established along the Sumy and Kharkiv regions’ border with internationally recognised Russian territory following the rout of Ukrainian forces from Kursk.

Russia says it has taken the villages, while Ukrainian officer Victor Trehubov said they were still contested. An advance into Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine’s industrial heartland and a flagship of Soviet industrialisation and high-tech industries for much of the 20th century, could severely weaken Ukraine’s war effort.

Russia’s slow but steady gains along the 600-mile front line reduce its interest in the swift peace talks being urged by US President Donald Trump, with Washington accusing Moscow of stalling on proposals for a summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said today that the “coalition of the willing” promoted by Britain and France, suggesting a postwar Western troop presence in Ukraine, was a no-go, with any deployment of soldiers from Nato member states being a red line.

Both countries continued to bombard each other’s energy infrastructure, a war crime, while Russia reported an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on Rostov-on-Don.