RUSSIA is capturing territory the size of two football pitches every minute in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s troops are advancing at their fastest since the invasion began in 2022.
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But it would still take more than a year at the current rate to capture the rest of Donetsk province, seen as Moscow’s minimum goal.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Kremlin troops seized around 8.5 square miles a day this month — despite America giving Kyiv permission to hit Russia with long-range missiles.
Russian forces have blasted forward around Kupiansk, in northeastern Kharkiv province, and Khurakove in southern Donbas.
But the attackers are swerving “Ukrainian strongpoints” such as well defended cities which they “cannot seize as rapidly,” the ISW said.
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UK Defence Secretary John Healey warned the 600-mile frontline was the most unstable it has been since February 2022.
But Russia’s rate of advance is nowhere near its peak of 490 square miles a day — or 125 pitches a minute — in the first weeks of the war.
And the ruble has plunged to its lowest level since March 2022 despite recent battlefield gains.
Ukraine has continued to blast targets in Russia with US made ATACMS missiles.
Russia claimed the missiles hit an air unit in Kursk and the nearby Kursk-Vostochny airport, which hosts Su-30 fighter jets.
Moscow has vowed to retaliate.
Last week it unleashed an experimental hypersonic medium range ballistic missile sparking condemnation from the west.
