Russian Defence Minister says Moscow has sped up its advance in northeast Ukraine

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday that Russian forces had accelerated their advance in the north-east of Ukraine and had ground down the Ukrainian army's best units there.

Belousov was shown in a Defence Ministry video visiting a Russian command post in Ukraine manned by the Russian army grouping "North" where he handed out medals for bravery.

"This work we have done here now has crushed the best (Ukrainian) units. Now the advance has accelerated. We have thwarted their entire 2025 campaign," said Belousov.

Russian forces, who hold a little less than 20% of Ukraine's territory, have made advances on the logistics town of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region and have been advancing in the last two months at various frontline points at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data.