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By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
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Russian and proxy forces along the southern and eastern Ukrainian fronts are maintaining—and even advancing—their positions ahead of Kyiv's expected spring counteroffensive, according to the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the breakaway territory at the crux of Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014, told the state-owned Rossiya-24 television channel on Thursday that the military situation is "tense" in combat hotpots in the Donetsk area.
"The Ugledar area remains tense," Pushilin said, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency, using the Russian name to refer to the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, where intense combat has been reported in recent weeks. "The enemy has been making sporadic attempts to counterattack in the effort to improve their positions...but our units have been advancing anyway."
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"The situation remains tense, but it is fully under control," he added.
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Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Elsewhere, Pushilin said that Russian troops have advanced further around the devastated city of Bakhmut, which over several months of bloody urban combat has become synonymous with Russia's grinding offensive tactics.
Pushilin said that advancing Russian forces have now cut the last road open for the resupply of Ukrainian troops still fighting in the city.
"The road section in the Khromovo area is under full gunfire control," Pushilin said. "This was the last road. However, the enemy, all the same, has the possibility to move even under shelling. The enemy loses a part of its reserves along the route."
Russian forces, along with Wagner Group mercenaries have been edging forward into and around the flanks of Bakhmut for months. Despite repeated Russian claims of the city's imminent fall, Kyiv's troops are still fighting there.
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The Ukrainian government has faced some criticism for its decision to keep fighting in the town, sending reinforcements to the area despite heavy losses and repeated Ukrainian-Western assertions that Bakhmut holds little strategic value.
Ukrainian officials have said the attritional fighting in the east is intended to whittle down Russian strength ahead of Kyiv's own planned spring counteroffensive, which will be supported with fresh Western armor and NATO-trained troops.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that "more than 98 percent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered," including more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and "vast amounts of ammunition."
"In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armored brigades," Stoltenberg told journalists. "This will put Ukraine in the strong position to continue to retake occupied territory."
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