Moscow’s troops have retaken a few villages in a border area that Kyiv’s forces invaded last month and are also advancing steadily in eastern Ukraine.

Russia says it has retaken two villages in Kursk as Putin orders expansion of army - Putin expands Russian army’s ranks for third time since invading Ukraine in February 2022

Russian forces captured the Ukrainian town of Ukrainsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday as they advanced westwards in a bid to take the whole of the Donbas, Russian state-run RIA news agency and pro-Russian war bloggers reported.

The high losses on both sides are posing problems on the battlefield and accelerating demographic fears.

"We think it lays out a strategy and a plan that can work," she said. Miller told a news briefing Blinken had learned about the plan during a visit to Kyiv and shared the ambassador's assessment. He said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said he looked forward to presenting the plan in detail to President Joe Biden.