Russia’s military progress slows, but it makes gains in the south and east.

Whilst a missile strike on Friday hit the outskirts of Lviv, a Ukrainian metropolis that had been spared a lot of the Russian assault, the newest intelligence assessments point out that Russian forces are nonetheless struggling to seize extra territory as they attempt to push throughout Ukraine.

The British protection intelligence service mentioned on Friday that Russian forces had “made minimal progress this week,” and that Ukrainian forces across the capital, Kyiv, had continued to frustrate Russian makes an attempt to encircle the town.

Nonetheless, Russia was persevering with to bombard the capital. A big explosion from what gave the impression to be a cruise missile strike or aerial bombardment blew a crater into the courtyard of a residential constructing in Kyiv on Friday, in one of many bigger strikes to hit a civilian space within the metropolis, and left at the least one lifeless.

Russia’s latest territorial features have been largely within the south and east of the nation, together with within the areas round Mariupol, in keeping with assessments by Western governments and impartial analysts. Russian forces have superior from the southern metropolis of Kherson, which they’ve captured, towards Kryvyi Rih, nearer to the middle of Ukraine.

Russia additionally continued its assaults on Mariupol from the east and west on Thursday, and on Friday its Protection Ministry mentioned that Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been “tightening the noose” across the metropolis. The Ukrainian Normal Workers reported that Russians have been finishing up the “whole destruction of civilian infrastructure, housing and livelihoods.”

The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy within the north and northeast stay encircled and topic to heavy Russian shelling, British protection intelligence mentioned.

Ukrainian army officers insisted this week that they have been mounting a fierce counterattack. Forces in Kharkiv, the second largest Ukrainian metropolis, which has seen in depth destruction from Russian strikes for the reason that begin of the invasion, reported that they’d inflicted heavy losses on a Russian rifle regiment that had besieged the town.

The Institute for the Research of Warfare, a Washington-based suppose tank, mentioned that Russian forces had launched a number of unsuccessful assaults south of the town of Izyum, within the Kharkiv area, this week. Russian forces are doubtless in search of to bypass the town, the evaluation mentioned, to proceed advancing towards Slovyansk, a metropolis to the east that’s managed by Russia-backed separatists. Analysts say that certainly one of Russia’s targets has been to chop off Ukrainian troops which were combating within the east from forces in the remainder of the nation.

Explosions have been heard within the strategically vital southern metropolis of Odessa, nestled on the Black Sea, on Friday morning. Whereas the extent of the injury was not instantly clear, a long-feared amphibious assault on the important thing metropolis has seemed much less doubtless in latest days, the Institute for the Research of Warfare mentioned in its evaluation.

Russia could also be parceling out components of a reserve drive that will be wanted in that operation, the group mentioned, directing them as an alternative to help ongoing assaults on Mariupol.