KYIV – Ukraine’s top military leader announced on Wednesday that Russian forces have seized control of three settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. This development marks an expansion of Moscow’s efforts to capture more territory within Ukraine.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported via Telegram that dense fog allowed Russian troops to breach Ukrainian lines in Zaporizhzhia. He described the ongoing situation as “grueling battles” as Ukrainian units strive to counter the Russian advance.

Despite the developments in Zaporizhzhia, General Syrskyi emphasized that the most intense fighting is occurring in Pokrovsk, an embattled city in the eastern Donetsk region. Nearly half of the front-line engagements in the last 24 hours took place there.

Additionally, the northeastern Kharkiv region, particularly the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, has seen a notable increase in combat activity recently.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now approaching its fourth year, has resulted in the occupation of about 20% of Ukrainian territory. In response, new U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s crucial oil sector are set to take effect on November 21. The aim is to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into agreeing to a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are grappling with a burgeoning corruption scandal that has reached senior levels of the government. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced the suspension of Ukraine’s Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, who is currently under investigation.

Russian gains come at a cost

The U.S. sanctions on Russia’s biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, raise the stakes for Putin. The Russian leader has so far avoided serious top-level peace negotiations, with Ukrainian and Western officials accusing him of stalling for time while his army tries to grab more Ukrainian territory. International peace efforts have come to nothing.

Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army has scaled up its attacks, placing the short-handed Ukrainian military under severe strain. Ukrainian officials said in September that the front line has grown in length to nearly 1,250 kilometers (800 miles). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia had deployed around 170,000 troops in Donetsk.

Over the past four weeks, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported capturing nine settlements and villages in Donetsk: eight in the Zaporizhzhia region, seven in the Dnipropetrovsk region and five in the Kharkiv region.

Russia’s corrosive war of attrition has been costly in terms of casualties and armor, however, and Ukraine has held it to incremental battlefield gains.

The Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s siege of Pokrovsk, where it has deployed elite drone operators and “spetsnaz” special forces soldiers, has been slow-moving because its military commanders are spreading their resources widely.

Russia is pursuing several offensive operations across the theater simultaneously and is having difficulty extending logistical operations, the Washington-based think tank said late Tuesday.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has launched sustained long-range drone attacks on high-value military-related assets inside Russia.

Its latest assault hit the Stavrolen chemical plant in Budionnovsk, in the Stavropol region of Russia, overnight, according to the general staff. The plant produces polymers for composite materials used by the Russian military, it said.

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Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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