KYIV/KUPIANSK: Russian-backed forces have advanced in some areas of eastern Ukraine, according to Britain, even as Moscow’s grip on the south of the country is waning and a Russian-installed official has urged locals to leave a region he claims to have annexed.The towns of Optyine and Ivangrad, south of the hotly disputed town of Bakhmut, were taken by forces led by the private Russian military corporation Wagner Group, according to a British intelligence report. This was the first such progress in more in three months.
Since early July, “few, if any, other settlements have been taken by regular Russian or separatist forces,” according to the daily dispatch from London, which usually concentrates on Ukrainian military victories.
